Yet I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed. 2 Ti 1:12
"You need to pull the car off the road," he said, "it is getting too hot, and you will blow up the engine." The man sitting behind me, talking on his cell phone, seemed more irritated than concerned. "OK!" he quipped, "do it your way. Do what you think is best. But you know what you know? Nothin! You know nothin'!"
And now my mind is wandering upon this conversation I shouldn't have noticed because it doesn't concern me. I couldn't help it, though. Is this a wife he is talking to? A son? A daughter? I hoped, for his sake, it wasn't either of his parents, or he might find slim pickings if he showed up at a will reading anytime soon. "Ya know what you know? Nothin'. Ya know nothin". Wow! What a thing to tell another human being. Obviously, the person trying not to blow up their car on the other side of the conversation knows how to drive, right? Nothin? Huh.
How do we, as human beings, when we disagree with someone else, reduce their value, ability, and knowledge to "nothing"? In diminishing their worth, talents, gifts, appeal, etc., doesn't it make us feel better about them not agreeing with us? Do we believe we have the corner on knowledge, ability, or the 'whatever'?
This morning, I heard a man on the radio who was a most passionate scientist. You could listen to the great excitement in his scientific testimony about the advancements in science, the "yet-to-be-discovered" possibilities, and the universe's complexity. He was one human being that seemed to know somethin'. And he was on the radio to tell the world all about it.
Then a caller phoned in and asked him a straightforward question that, without any doubt, changed the tenure of his enthusiasm: "What happens after a human being dies?" was the pointed question. His answer? "Nothing."
His voice seemed a bit more reserved; the edge of excitement smoothed out a little. His voice projected a slightly lower tone; his words were carefully chosen and more serious. 'When you unplug a computer from its power source, nothing is left but an empty shell. That's how it is when the human body dies. It becomes a lifeless shell of what once was. That is the cold, hard reality of the universe." Wow.
Now, in my opinion, there's a man who knows "nothing." For all his degrees, for all his expression in discovery and examination of creation, how in the world could he honestly believe his own answer? How could he not see a world that belongs to a Creator, way too magnificent for us to grasp, too vast to hold all the answers in our hands, and entirely created with purpose and design? Really? Nothing?
The Bible tells me that the wonders of God are too great for me to understand. I know that! That is somethin' I do know. Yet, when I watch other human earth dwellers and try to figure out why they do some of the crazy things they do, I feel like I know nothin'.
I know nothing when the sun rises and casts a red glow across a blue sky while the trees across the water from my back door look greener than ever. When a seed seemingly overnight pushes through heavy darkness into the sunshine, and eight weeks later, I am placing the sweetest strawberry into my mouth, I know I know nothin'. When that swan swims by with purpose and intent followed by the love of its life as I wonder where they came from and where they are going, I realize I know nothin'. Nothin', that is except this: In the beginning...GOD.
God is the all-knowing Creator of the swans, strawberries, and the scientist and the person on the other end of the phone trying not to blow up their car engine. I know He knows all of it, every minute detail and every future moment I will experience. For all the things I do not know, this one compensates for them all.
Nothing. Only in His hands can nothing become something. Only in His plan can nothing be everything. That includes you. That includes me. For all the things I could learn, for all the things I don't know, how grateful I am that this is the one thing I do; I might know nothin', but my Heavenly Creator knows it all!
Copyright © 2023 [Janice Hart] All Rights Reserved.
🙌