The Secret Things


We humans are curious to a fault. It does not matter if you speak to a child or an adult: tell someone that they cannot do something, and you have just challenged them to try. Humans keep trying to push every boundary– to learn more, to investigate more deeply, to plumb greater depths and ascend to greater heights. Many believe that there is limitless potential with human beings.

Yet we are the creation. Our brains, while magnificent in their complexity, are still finite. There are some things that we are just not going to be able to understand. There are some depths that we cannot plumb; some heights we will not climb.

Three of the hardest words for humans to say are, “I don’t know.” And yet, especially in many spiritual matters, they are very humble and powerful words.

God never intended to reveal everything to humanity– there are many things that we just cannot understand (Isaiah 55:9-10). They are the “secret things” that belong to God. He knows and understands, and we may gain a better understanding when we stand before Him.

Until then, however, there is nothing wrong with saying, “I don’t know,” when the Bible has not revealed it. How can God be Three in One, or One in Three? We don’t know. How will the resurrection take place, and what will we be? All we know is that we will be as Christ (1 John 3:2). Why is there evil and suffering? In the end, we can’t really know.

But we can know what God has revealed to us, and we are to be content with devoting ourselves to that. Let us diligently consider what can be known, and leave what cannot be known to God who knows all.

Ethan R. Longhenry

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