¿Tu Comprendes? Terima kasih!

Now, there may be many of you who completely understand the title of this devotional, or at least half of it. On the other hand, there may be a ton of you who have no idea what it means.

I’ll get to the translation in a moment, I promise.

But first, a story:

Just recently, I was in Mexico visiting a missionary family which our church has supported for over 20 years. Paco, Shawna, and their two kiddos, Bella and Nico, welcomed me, Mita, Ken, and Pam to Queretaro, Mexico for a few days to visit, see the church-planting and expanding work they’ve been doing, and to explore the potential of bringing groups from the church down to work with them in the future.

Side note: If mission work is something exciting and of interest to you, please let us know so we can keep you informed on what we’re hoping to do.

Okay, back to my story.

While I’ve studied Spanish in high school and college and have visited a few Spanish-speaking countries, it still feels very foreign coming out of my mouth AND I definitely sound like a 3-year-old when I attempt to speak it. It just doesn’t make total sense to me even though I know it’s communicating something.

But I tried speaking it while in Mexico anyway. And much to my surprise some of what I came up with made sense to the native Spanish speakers we were around. Very little, but some. I may not have really understood what I was saying, but they did.

And here’s what I thought about as I reflected on my recent time speaking my non-native language:

While things might not make sense to me, they very well still may hold an immeasurable amount of meaning, power, and beauty.

One of the most amazing characteristics of God, which we do not completely share as humans, is His incomprehensible nature. I mean, we may attempt to hold an air of mystery at times in life, or even pretend we’re on some higher level of understanding than those around us. But, when we’re honest, our behavior as humans is pretty transparent and figure-out-able.

On the other hand, God is sooooooo vast, wonderfully mysterious, and His ways transcend all of our human understanding.

Here is just a sampling of scriptures which touch on His incomprehensibility:

Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!  Romans 11:33

Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable. Psalm 145:3

Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure. Psalm 147:5

Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary;

his understanding is unsearchable. Isaiah 40:28

God is incomprehensible in His entirety.

His power, matchless. His being never ending. And His “ways higher than our ways” as it says in Isaiah 55:9.

His nature, at times, can be very hard to grasp and we may never feel like we totally understand.

BUT!

Just like I had a limited understanding of the Spanish language being spoken around me while in Mexico, when we don’t fully understand God’s nature, it doesn’t mean there isn’t a huge significance to who He is, how He works, and what He’s doing on our behalf at every minute of the day.

You may not be able to understand the title of this devotional BUT that doesn’t mean the words don’t carry a large significance.

As it is with God - just because you won’t ever be able to fully understand all of His ways, it doesn’t mean they aren’t absolutely amazing.

God’s ways are incomprehensible, there’s no denying it. And for so many good reasons (which we could probably go on and on about for years!). I think I may just spontaneously combust if I had knowledge of the good, bad, and the ugly that God knows. You know what I mean?! Haha….

But instead, today, I rest assured that He reveals to me what I need to know, when I need to know it, and that’s enough.

Oh! You want to know what the title of this devotional means?!

It means, “Do you understand?” in Spanish. And “Thank You” in Bahasa Indonesian. You’re welcome for the random linguistics lesson of the day.

Love you!

Kyle Moss

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