Last December, I came home one night to find chocolate wrappers strewn all over the kitchen floor. My school bag was sitting on the floor and I suddenly remembered that inside it was a container of Trader Joe’s dark chocolate truffles that a student had given me for Christmas. Except the container was no longer in the bag. It was ripped to shreds and was lying beside the empty wrappers.

I knew exactly who the culprit was. Leo the pug stood nearby, guiltily looking up at me. 

“Leo!” I scolded him.”No, no!” Dark chocolate and cocoa are poisonous ingredients for dogs, and Leo had had his fill of both. He was panting and restlessly pacing the floor, which were not good signs. I knew it was going to take a trip to the emergency vet to make sure he was okay. 

Minutes later, I found myself dragging Leo through the front doors of the clinic. He was not excited to be at this strange, unfamiliar place late at night. He was even less excited when a vet tech came to take him to the back to run some tests.

“It’s okay, Leo! It’s for your own good!” Leo just looked at me with confusion in his big brown eyes as he was carried away from me. I couldn’t explain to Leo what was going on and why he was being taken away by strangers. He couldn’t understand.            

When you think about it, we are a lot like dogs. We are enticed by sights and smells of things that aren’t good for us. We get ourselves into trouble seeking after things we shouldn’t. Sometimes we have to go through some painful and scary experiences that we don’t understand. 

Like dogs, our minds are limited.

Sometimes I think about all the questions dogs must have rolling around in their heads. Why do my owners leave the house all the time, and why can’t I come along? Why do they make sounds with their mouths that make no sense? Why can’t I eat my food up where they eat theirs? And why in the world do they spend so much time staring at those little rectangular devices? 

Dogs cannot comprehend much about the world they live in. They may learn the meaning of a handful of words, but their minds will never understand language and they will never read a book. They don’t know where Egypt is or what the Statue of Liberty is. They can’t enjoy a sunset or bake a cake or play a game of Monopoly. They will never have a clue about most of the things we know and do.

Likewise, there are so many things I don’t understand about the world I live in. How is it that God always existed? Where did evil come from? Why are there serial killers and earthquakes and diseases? What happens to people who live in remote places and never hear the gospel? Why did my daughter die at such a young age?

The truth is, there are so many mysteries in this universe that my mind wasn’t made to be able to comprehend. My brain can’t begin to understand the full knowledge of God. The One who created the earth and the heavens exists on a completely different level than I do.  

Isaiah 55:8-9 reminds us, “‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the Lord. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.’”  Isaiah 55:8-9

God’s knowledge is so much higher than ours; we can’t even begin to touch it. Just as Leo will never understand the Pythagorean Theorem, I will never understand the complexities of life that I am not yet meant to understand. Thankfully, we have the Bible to give our feeble minds a bit of knowledge of our God as we live here on this earth. 

But someday…

The Bible tells us, “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.” 1 Cor. 13:1

Right now, our vision of the world is unclear and warped, just as the mirrors of ancient times. But a day will come when we will be in the presence of our Lord, and we will fully know Him – the most amazing experience of our existence!

Until that day, just as I took care of Leo after his chocolate indulgence, I can trust that my Master loves me and will take care of me. I may not know much, but I know that I can have faith in His vast knowledge and humbly rely on Him.