“I bless the LORD who gives me counsel; in the night also my heart instructs me. I have set the LORD always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.” (Psalm 16:7-­8)

Pebbles of wisdom matched against boulders of truth; a spattering of know-­ how confronting limitless understanding; little droplets of sense filtering by an overflowing ocean tide of what really matters – clearly, no comparison exists between man’s finite mind and the grand source of perfect wisdom found in God.

Most of life’s peevish complaints crumble like brittle clay when confronted by God’s masterful perspective. With a poet’s eloquence and a swordsman’s precise thrust, the Lord exposes mankind’s acute ignorance in his dialogue with Job. “Has the rain a father, or who has begotten the drops of dew? From whose womb did the ice come forth, and who has given birth to the frost of heaven?” (Job 38:28-­‐29)

Relentless in his attack on the foolishness of doubting him, God lays before Job dozens of scenarios to illustrate his unparalleled magnificence. “Who can number the clouds by wisdom? Or who can tilt the water skins of the heavens, when the dust runs into a mass and the clods stick fast together? Is it by your understanding that the hawk soars and spreads his wings toward the south? Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up and makes his nest on high?” (Job 38:37-­38; 39:26‐27)

Job gets God’s point perfectly and tutors us on how to respond when we doubt God’s goodness or his management of our affairs: “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted…Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know” (Job 42:2-­‐3).

When our thinking needs realignment, when our thoughts beg direction, when what we lack is a good dose of God’s viewpoint, let us remember Job’s advise and line ourselves up with our God who is absolutely in charge of all the particulars we do “not understand.”
Elizabeth A. Mitchell