Mystery: A Brief Thought on Today’s First Reading (from the book of Job)

God is the unutterable mystery (Gk: myein: to be shut or closed). He is hidden, but present. No one can offer God advice or hold him accountable for the way things are in life. God’s ways are not our ways. 

As we read in the book of Isaiah: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways…For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, my thoughts higher than your thoughts.”

God’s plan is too large for us to understand. It is Mystery pure and simple. We have a small part to play in this life, and so we just do our part without needing to understand the whole picture. But, even though God is hidden, He is present, and our prayer is always before Him; for God inspires our prayer. Our prayer is His breath breathing through us. 

God is hidden, but near; He is present, not distant. I won’t even say He is next to us; rather, He is within you, that’s how close He is to you. 

Think of a newborn baby that is carried by her father or mother in a car seat. The baby doesn’t know what’s going on; the baby doesn’t understand the hospital environment, what this institution is, who everyone is, what they do, but the baby is safe in the hands of her father, who carries her in what is required by law to be a new car seat. To that father, the child he’s carrying is everything, the center of his life. And that’s how God the Father looks upon you and me. We are carried by him, and we have His constant and undivided attention.