Unsearchable

Books, stacks and stacks of books. Growing up in India, my relationship with books was simple – test score. I read books, when needed, so I could pass my tests. My school had a small library and we weren’t allowed to check out books. We could read it and give it back before exiting the library. I hardly visited the library because we had back to back classes and I had no time to visit the library. Simply put, I did not grow up reading random books or novels. After moving to the West, I saw a stark contrast. Everyone reads all the time and almost everyone wants to author their own book. With digital books and media, one can get their hands on any book, anytime. Book studies, book clubs and small groups revolving around books are so common here that I continue to be fascinated by it all. 

This painting was inspired by Jeremiah 33:3. I have come to understand that every time God speaks to me, there are multiple layers and dimensions to it. I am humbled each time by the depth of His wisdom and how often I cannot fully comprehend His plan. We can read all the books we want and apply all the theories, formulae and theology We’ve learnt but we would still fall short of understanding all the mystery. Despite our inability to fully comprehend Him, God chooses to reveal hidden things to us. He chooses to (doesn’t have to) reveal His character, His beauty, His love and His plans for the future to us, who at every turn seem to stray away from Him. There have been several times in my life where God has revealed hidden things as forewarnings, as path for the future or as added details to partial knowledge. He has revealed things through numerous, oftentimes unconventional ways. Why He would do that remains a mystery to me. 

Jeremiah 33:3 is a promise, a hope, for fallen humanity, that when we call on Him, He will reveal things that are hidden from us. God can, and often does, reveal unsearchable things that we cannot find in books or stacks of carefully written theories and papers. He reveals Himself to us because of who He is and for His name’s sake. When prophecies are given, it is out of His mercy and unending grace. I can understand that we have been burnt by several so-called “prophetic messengers” but that doesn’t change the fact that God still intervenes in unimaginable ways with ordinary people. Call on Him and He will reveal great and unsearchable things. He will do so for His own sake. Despite divine revelation, we may never fully understand and that’s okay. He understands.

Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know. Jeremiah 33:3