In the 21st century humankind has been able to make remarkable advances in the exploration of our universe.

Scientists using instruments from telescopes to microscopes have learned so much and found explanations for so many things that exist. Also they have learned that the universe is vastly more complex than people thought it was even 100 years ago.

Because of the remarkable increase in knowledge of our physical creation, some scientists have become rather conceited and tell us that there is no longer any need to say there is a god behind what we see.

As I have said before in these devotionals, it is a little like saying we do not need to believe in a watchmaker any more because we can explain how a watch works.

As I was reading an article on a NASA website recently, it was fascinating to learn that about 75% of our universe is dark energy and 25% is dark matter.

What we can see with our eyes that is, what is visible to us, makes up less than 5% of all the universe according to this website. All this “dark” stuff, matter and energy, is unknown by scientists beyond the fact it must exist to account for the phenomenon we are able to observe in the visible universe.

So, then, we must admit that the universe is incredibly more complex than what we know of it. We have only scratched the surface of what is visible, the 5% of what exists. Therefore what we do know is only the dust on the face of the cosmos. 95% of what exists is still to be explored if we can find some way to do that.

Creation is remarkably complex and mysterious. The Creator behind it must therefore be infinitely more complex and mysterious. Is it any wonder that the apostle Paul says what he does in our verse about God? The more we know about the world around us the more we realize we know nothing at all.

If the way the cosmos is put together defies analysis, then it follows that the way God runs the world and its events is, at least at times, mysterious. We find it impossible to make sense of some of the pain and suffering in our world.

People we love and respect for their exemplary way of living often suffer greatly. We wonder why it should be so, especially when some evil people live trouble free lives. We cannot make sense of it any more than we can make sense of so much of the physical world. William Cowper, one of the great English poets wrote:

God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform
He plants His footsteps in the sea and rides upon the storm.
Blind unbelief is sure to err and scan His work in vain;
God is His own interpreter, and He will make it plain.

If you follow the Lord regardless of your suffering, you have the promise that “He will make it plain.” Do you follow God where you cannot trace Him?