Pursuing Mystery

I love a good mystery. Whether in the form of books, movies, scavenger hunts, or even jigsaw puzzles, since childhood, I’ve felt a magnetic pull to the unknown. The experience of exploration, discovery, and resolution brings an intrigue, challenge, and satisfaction that I find irresistible. It therefore makes perfect sense to me why, later in life, I developed a love of theology. How could I not be enticed by the study of God, the greatest of all mysteries?

Turns out I’m not alone in this, and in fact, I would argue that every human being has a magnetic pull of their own towards mystery. I believe God designed us this way with intention.

“It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out.” (Proverbs 25:2)

We are by nature hard-wired for discovery. To seek out knowledge and understanding and completion. To search out things that are hidden and bring them to light. Right down to hide-and-seek and Easter egg hunts, even as children, we can’t help but take delight in the engagement with mystery. There is a joy and delight in the process of discovery, and a fulfillment in solving or apprehending what we are searching for.

This is one of the great thrills of being children of God. We have a standing invitation from our Lord to engage in the hunt. In His vastness and incomprehensibility, God extends to us the invitation to come and find Him. To discover Him, to explore Him, to enjoy Him. As with any good mystery, He hides Himself, but He does so not because He wishes to withhold Himself from us, but because He wishes to reveal – to give us the delight of the pursuit and the glory of the discovery. A kind and loving Father, God cloaks Himself in mystery with the strategic intent of being discovered. He hides Himself to be found.

“‘You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,’ declares the Lord.” (Jeremiah 29:13-14)

“I want you woven into a tapestry of love, in touch with everything there is to know of God. Then you will have minds confident and at rest, focused on Christ, God’s great mystery.” (Colossians 2:2 MSG)

“Seek the Lord while he may be found.” (Isaiah 55:6)

God is infinite and inexhaustible, and He entices us with this eternal invitation. We are beckoned into the “more” of the Lord, invited to pursue Him layer after layer in all His facets and intricacies – “further up, further in,” to borrow the words of C.S. Lewis. We are invited in, not asked to simply keep Him at arm’s length, admiring from afar as though in a museum or reading words on a page. God invites us to come up close, to dive in. To fully explore Him in all of who He is – His nature, His perspective, His thoughts, His ways, His values, His kingdom… His plans, His dreams, what moves Him, what delights Him. We’re invited to know Him, to walk with Him, to commune with Him. We’re invited to pursue mystery.

“Deep calls unto deep.” (Psalm 42:7)

This is what we’re made for. In the depths of our being, we are summoned into the depths of God, to experience the unveiling of His glorious mysteries.

Where is God inviting you into the “more”?