“The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever” (Deuteronomy 29:29).
This Scripture. It’s always helped me breathe a sigh of relief.
It’s not just that I don’t know everything about God; it’s the understanding that I can’t know everything about God. He has secret things that belong just to Him, things about Him that He has decided not to reveal.
Certainly, here at Christmas, we are repeatedly reminded of how much our human brains cannot fathom the secret, unsearchable ways of God. Things are not always as they appear – sometimes, the unimaginable is exactly what happens. This is our amazing God.
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The account of Jesus coming to earth is full of the secret ways of God.
Why did God choose for Jesus to be born through Judah’s line? Why not Joseph’s line? What a great ancestral lineup it would be – from the one who saved Israel from famine – came the Savior of the world. Or, from the tribe of the Levites? From the earthly line of priests, came our high priest. But the secret things belong to the LORD – and God chose Judah’s line.
The Savior of the world was born in a stable because there was no room inside, anywhere. God could’ve made any room available for His Son. Any room. So why didn’t He? The secret things belong to the LORD – and God chose a stable.
And the shepherds. They got to see the magnificent, overwhelming glory of the angels. In the quiet darkness, they were the only ones privileged to receive this grand announcement that the Messiah was born. Why not everyone, or at least others? The secret things belong to the LORD – and God chose the shepherds.
The beauty of our human questions is that they are weak. They have no power to undermine or change God. They cannot force God to reveal what He has chosen to keep secret. He is God and His ways are as secret to humans today as they have been since He created the first man and woman.
Recently, I had a sweet conversation with a friend I’d known as a young woman. Over the years, we lost touch. More than 35 years ago, she was pregnant and single. At the time, I was an older teenager; she was a few years older than me. I didn’t know her well enough to be included in the inside conversations about her pregnancy.
“What are you doing now, Sherri?” my friend asked as we reconnected. I told her about my work in a local pregnancy medical clinic. And at that, she proceeded to tell me her story. The story perhaps she thought I was too young to understand so many years ago. The story not yet finished back then.
The father of her baby unexpectedly left when she was seven months pregnant. She didn’t fill in all the details, but any woman who has ever been pregnant can imagine the emotions that come with that. She was resolved to be a mom, but her questions were many: “How will I do this? How will I afford diapers? Where will I live?”
Variations of the same heavy question I hear regularly in the clinic: “How can this possibly end well?”
But on this side of her story is a beautiful reality. “But if he hadn’t left, I wouldn’t …” she went on to relay the results of what, 35 years ago, felt devastating.
In the secret ways of God, through this devastation came an extraordinary gift. In the space her baby’s father left, the Lord brought my friend a godly husband. They’ve been married for 30 years now. Her baby is now a beautiful adult woman living life.
What God revealed to her in time, was secret in the moment. She admits she didn’t even see this outcome, this life, as a possibility.
Now though, she sees the hand of God, giving her the beautiful gift of a Christian husband. Isn’t that the glory of our God? What appears done, finished, and impossible, is the groundwork for God to reveal his great love for us. The secret things belong to the LORD – and God chose her baby’s father’s absence as the way to give my friend her amazing husband.
My friend ended the conversation with an encouragement to me: “Tell the women to choose life for their babies.” It’s a beautiful statement from a woman who certainly understands the way many women feel.
Many of the women we see in pregnancy medical clinics are making pregnancy decisions in a place that doesn’t look great. It looks hard. It looks frightening. When they look into the future, they can’t see a path that leads to anything good. “I just can’t do this,” they say, looking at their circumstances, their relationships, and their plans.
They too wonder, “How can this possibly end well?”
So, we step into spaces with women, as they are deciding whether or not they will let their unborn children live, and we focus - and help them focus - on what God has revealed.
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For God has revealed His high regard for human life. It is His wonderful handiwork living inside each pregnant woman. Everything created has been created by His will. Human lives are distinctly created in His image. These things – these revealed things - belong to us and our children forever.
And see what God does in his secret ways! Over 2000 years ago, with a baby in a manger. 30 years ago, in the life of my friend. Now, in the lives of grateful moms who chose to not abort their babies even when the way ahead looked dark and unclear.
“How can this possibly end well?” The secret things belong to the LORD.
