I’ve always loved mysteries. As a kid, I loved Nancy Drew books. I always tried to solve the mystery before the answer was revealed.

I still love to read and watch mysteries. There’s nothing better than a good Whodunnit?

I’ve run into a bit of problem with mystery, though, over the past couple of years. I’ve found that there are mysteries to which I can’t find answers. I so badly want to be right, but when I can’t find any answers, I can’t be right.

I thought I had God figured out. I thought I knew the answers to just about any spiritual problem: pray more, read the Bible more, go to church….blah, blah, blah. But then, God rocked my world and turned it upside down, and none of those answers helped anymore.

I started finding that God isn’t at all who I thought Him to be, nor does He operate like I believed. I’ve experienced Grace in my own life, and watched Him work in the lives of others, and none of it adds up to my previously held beliefs.

Unconditional love, grace and mercy are mysteries. They still baffle me, leaving me often saying, I don’t know why you lavish me with these, but thank you!

I don’t understand and can’t comprehend the mystery of redemption. I only know its effects, for which I am eternally thankful.

It’s a mystery to me how He takes ashes and makes beauty from them, how He works all things together for good.

Today, I’m thankful for mystery…for not understanding God…for not being able to figure Him out. I’m thankful He surprises me.