“He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” – Ecclesiastes 3:11
I decided to visit Donald Miller’s Blog and found a rather casual yet interesting entry about humanity and its unexplored facets. In his blog he writes,
“I still think the least explored territory is humanity, both collective and individual. It’s not physical territory, I know, but where is there more fearful darkness or illuminating beauty than in the depths of the person sitting next to you on a bus? Where is there more evil and more beauty than in the unexplored cosmos of a human being?”
I think he’s right. More than the ocean or space, humanity is the least explored territory.
I had a short conversation with one of my classmates in GLC before the class started. Little did I know that I said something that piqued her curiosity and self-awareness. During the break, she asked if we could talk more. Though it wasn’t my main point, I explained, “What I see is just an observation. I cannot make decisive comments about you because we haven’t really spent much time together.”
In a separate talk over coffee I told a friend, “If you believe that God created everything and everyone, you could say that He has left a sort of fingerprint upon His creation. We can, then, see and find God’s signature in His work – however hard or hidden it may be.”
Each person is a mystery. So much can be asked of one person, and it takes a lifetime – maybe even more – to fully understand him/her. We are mysteries known only to the One who created us, and the psalmist understood this as he wrote:
For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be. – Psalm 139:13-16
I would submit to the notion that we are in pursuit of all things beautiful – whatever our definition of beauty is. If we treat each person as a beautiful mystery – fearfully and wonderfully crafted by the Hands of the Creator, we would find ourselves spending time discovering them, understanding who they are, trying to unravel facets of their being, in search for that beauty that is God’s fine print in them. We veer away from (yet not ignore) the flaws we see, as we are flawed and imperfect ourselves. Instead, we choose to believe the best in them. However difficult it may seem, or how tiresome it may get, we choose to remain fascinated and enthusiastic – because we have resided ourselves to the fact that through His eyes we will find God in that person, with His mighty Hand ever at work.