Why God Loves Mystery

In episode two of my new series, “Questions With God,” I ask the question, “What do we do about the weird stuff?” (See video below.) Let me give a little context for this question. In my first movie, Finger of God, I filmed a number of things that could definitely be considered “weird”: gold dust appearing in church services, manna appearing, gemstones appearing. But perhaps the weirdest, most inexplicable thing for me personally was my aunt and uncle walking out of a church service having miraculously received gold teeth.

My aunt Patsy tells the whole story in the episode, but that’s not what I want to focus on here. Miracles are funny things. On the one hand, they hold the ability to light a fire inside of us for more of God. I think my films are proof enough of this. But on the other hand, they also hold the ability to stir up every doubt and piece of skepticism that may be lying dormant inside of us.

One of the most telling pieces of Scripture for me on this topic is Matthew 28:17. Jesus has just resurrected from the dead and appeared on a hillside in Galilee to his disciples. The Bible then tells us, “When they saw Him, they worshipped Him. But some doubted.” Jesus Christ Himself appears in front of their eyes, but still their rational, skeptical natures take hold. Things haven’t changed much in 2000 years.

My aunt and uncle both received miraculous gold teeth; of this I have no doubt. Why, then, do I so often doubt other things I see or hear?  Maybe it’s simply the trappings of our culture. We have become so used to seeing our leaders exposed as liars and hypocrites, and we’ve seen so many photos and videos prove to be doctored and fake that our natural tendency is often to view something as false until proven true. In the real world, that’s probably an intelligent approach to the far-fetched. But what about the realm of faith? What about the realm of miracles?  

I have learned a lot about God over the last decade, but I think the thing that has surprised me the most about Him is His absolute and unflinching support of mystery. God doesn’t just dabble in mystery, He fully embraces it. He describes His kingdom constantly as something hidden, something of great value that needs to be sought out and found, something that can never be fully understood. This flies in the face of our American desire for answers, but maybe that’s the point. Faith without mystery isn’t really faith; it’s certainty. And God never asked for us to be certain in Him, just to have faith in Him. He means it when He tells Thomas that “blessed are those who have not seen, and have yet believed” (John 20:29b). If God were interested in certainty, I’m sure Jesus would have taken a moment on that hill in Galilee to reassure those friends of His that this was in fact really Him, and He really had risen from the dead. Instead, He ignores their doubts and moves on with His purposes.

God is not afraid of your doubts, but He is asking you to walk with Him in spite of them. Faith is the great currency of heaven precisely because it is so difficult for us. Its difficulty is what makes it valuable to the Father. And if it is valuable to God, it should be valuable to us as well.