Things I Discover Digging
Last week I dug up part of our yard for a small garden. It’d been grass and weeds since we cleared the big rocks and started mowing 29 years ago, but digging revealed surprises and mysteries. About three inches down I hit a layer of flagstone, making me wonder if that entire corner may have once been a patio. I also found nails, parts of bottles and dishes, by-products of life long ago. Finding things in what had seemed just dirt and grass makes me want to dig more deeply, (hopefully to uncover more flagstone, as I always wanted a flagstone patio near there).
My Bible study is doing “The Quest” by Beth Moore. Last week it spoke of mysteries, how God doesn’t show us everything at once; we dig and discover, and it brings joy because what we discover is alive, not dead like the rocks and trash I find in my yard. The Bible is the Living Word of God. If we leave our Bibles closed, it’s like the grass in my yard- the interesting truths stay hidden if we don’t open it up and dig.
I uncovered a human wisdom tooth this spring as I enlarged a flowerbed; likewise, there are mysteries in Scripture that make us ask questions. Sometimes it’s years before I understand an answer to a question, but what’s better than knowing is the seeking and learning that faith means we don’t have to have all the answers. I tossed that tooth back into the garden for someone else to find and wonder about one day.
The best thing about the Bible is that we never find all the treasure within its pages- you can read it again and again and gain something new and enlightening each time you open it. This year I discovered a cast iron stove leg in a flowerbed I’d been digging in for 29 years! It makes me wonder what else is hidden beneath our feet here. And when I look at the Bible I’ve been reading and marking in for 25 years, I see the same principle in colorful ink arrows drawn to verses, and “How have I never noticed THIS?” written with dates in the margins.
What you uncover about God and yourself in Scripture is alive, allowing you to grow and know, understand and trust Him more completely. “I will give you the treasures of darkness, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know that I am the LORD, the God of Israel, Who summons you by name.” IS 45:3