in Mysterious Ways...

When we decided on a trip to the aquarium today, I wasn’t really expecting to be inspired to write a blog by it. To be honest, the decision was mainly made as something which would allow us to avoid the rain, and something that wouldn’t be accompanied by a rather annoying theme tune….

But, as we wandered around, and as the boys, and Benjamin (at age 3) in particular became more and more excited by what they were looking at, it started me thinking a bit about the magnificence of creation, and about how we so often don’t see it because we’re so used to it, and how we should be more childlike in our view of the world, really looking at the beauty and intricacy of the natural world, marvelling at God’s handiwork, not just assuming we know what we’re looking at.

But even that wasn’t really enough to inspire me to write this entry. What got my writing tonight was not the amazing beauty of the clown fish and angel fish and their like. It wasn’t even the stately majesty of the sharks that has inspired me. What has got me writing was actually the oddity of the octopus, and the frankly alien jellyfish.

I was stunned, amazed and fascinated by both of these exhibits, and as I watched them, it got me wondering, “what on earth was God thinking when he made these?!” Looking at these two creatures, so completely and utterly different from anything we could even conceive, it just struck me how far we as humans are from truly understanding the mind of God.

We like to think that we are the pinnacle of creation, and in many ways we are - after all, we, uniquely, are made in the image of our creator, and that means a great deal. Yet we still fall far short of him in every way. In our pride we think we can understand God, and that we can expect him to act in the way we think he should, and yet how many of us would expect him to make something as weird as a jellyfish or an octopus.

And if we can’t fathom that, why do we think we can understand the way God choses to deal with us, his people. So often we try and put him in a box, limit what he can or should do based on our human comprehension… only to find him doing something different and unexpected, which tends to get us a little upset and worked up!

So yes, we should marvel at the work of our creator, we should appreciate the wonder and majesty of the world He created. But should we not also expect Him to continue to act in creative and unexpected ways, and above all do we not need to recognise that, however hard we try, however far we journey with him, at least in this world, there is always going to be some mystery about the ways of God… and we should recognise that as a good thing!