Know it all

The Vine Baptist Church StaffFeatured

Within our family gene pool, there is a propensity to colour blindness. Even though I do not suffer from it – alas – all three of my boys do. People with normal colour vision can see about 1 million distinct shades of colour. Those with colour blindness see only about 5% to 10% as many. I recently saw a simulation of what that must look like and was grieved to see how much they’re missing out on.

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Similarly, our heavenly Father knows that we are all drawing from a deficient spiritual gene pool. There’s so much that we do not see or understand, so much that we’re missing out on and it grieves him.

Not surprisingly, there are times when we all feel the need for more wisdom (if someone doesn’t, I’d dare say that they were not in touch with reality). This need often drives our desire to know more however, we do well to remember that wisdom and knowledge are not the same.

Paul warns the Corinthian believers that in this life, the perfection of knowledge is unattainable and it’s relentless pursuit can be destructive to the soul.

“Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.” (1 Corinthians 13:12 NLT)

“We know that ,”We all possess knowledge.” But knowledge puffs up while love builds up.”  (1 Corinthians 8:1 NIV)

Some years ago, some dear friends of ours received the difficult news that their oldest daughter had a very aggressive type of cancer. Her name was Bethany, and she happened to be my daughters best friend. Her final 12 months this side of heaven represented a stark decline in her outer body, but a remarkable growth in her inner spirit. The presence of God was very real to her during her sickness and the insights she gleaned – as a mere fifteen year old – often left us stunned. On one occasion,  she reflected,

“We don’t know everything, but we know enough!”

The truth is, none of us know it all, but we know someone who does. And that can be enough! That is wisdom, and a wonderful peace awaits those for whom ‘enough is enough’.