My thighs as I’m trying on size 4 jeans: “What year do you think this is?”
Me, groaning and straining: “All I had for lunch was a baked potato.”
Thighs: “With six pats of butter and about a quarter pound of bacon on it, right?”
Me, still groaning and straining—possibly crying a little: “Small potato! So stop asking questions and get…[groan]…in…[gasp]…there.”
Hips and belly: “Excuse us. We also have questions.”
While we’re questioning—and sort of questioning bacon—Francis Bacon said, “A prudent question is one half of wisdom.” Probably not great math, but I feel his take on questions could be…rather “fitting.”
The crucial questions in life? We can freely ask our all-knowing God. Moreover, we can know that He knows. “Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the whole earth. He never becomes faint or weary; there is no limit to his understanding,” (Isaiah 40:28 CSB). Before there were questions, He was already the answer.
It’s not really about getting my questions answered. It’s not about God granting every request either. Sometimes it’s entirely enough to know that He knows. And to know that He knows big. Bigger than I can imagine. It’s enough to know that He loves just as big. He’s trustworthy—beyond question.
Paul gives us a beautiful hymn of praise in Romans 11:33. “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and of the knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments and untraceable his ways!” (CSB)
“Unsearchable.” “Untraceable.” His vast thinking can’t fit into our human heads. Not with any amount of groaning and straining.
One paraphrase says, “Have you ever come on anything quite like this extravagant generosity of God, this deep, deep wisdom? It’s way over our heads. We’ll never figure it out” (Romans 11:33-34 MSG).
It’s okay to ask. Well, not to ask each other about jean sizes or years of birth. And no matter how pregnant a woman looks, it’s never okay to “ask.” But our Father tells us to ask Him. To seek Him. He even tells us that He rewards seeking. Having a strong faith is not the absence of asking. Faith is more about trusting before the answer. Or when the answer is not what we thought it would be.
Hebrews 11 is a fabulous faith chapter. Among its answers about faith and examples of it, verse six says that the Lord “rewards those who seek him.” Those listed in that Hall of Faith didn’t necessarily get what they asked for. But I think they each got a deeper view of their God. As we seek Him, we get to know Him in a richer way. We learn more personally what a trustworthy Father we have.
Jeremiah 29:13 holds the loveliest truth. “You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart.”
So I’m asking the Lord this important question today: Will You empower me to live “all in” when it comes to seeking? Empower me, I ask, to ask the right questions.
Meanwhile, in questions of the unimportant variety, if you’d like to ask how it went with the jeans, I’m all in there too. Got ‘em on just fine.
Just kidding. I bought stretchy leggings.