At the risk of getting lots of irate e-mail I will state that men have a difficult time understanding women. Men and women have two different sets of needs and two different ways of communication. Research says women come home at night and want to talk about the problems of the day. Men come home at night all talked out. When their wife tells of something horrible that happened at work he says, “Quit.” She is frustrated. She did not want him to solve her problem. She just wanted to talk. Communication between sexes is often a mystery.
When I ponder this I become aware of how difficult it then is for us to understand God. He even says, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, . . .” (Isaiah 55:8) One of the great passages of Scripture is Ephesians 1:9 and 10. In it Paul, one of the smartest men who ever lived, declares to us “God made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment–to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.”
Sometimes we wonder what in heaven and earth is going on here. The answer to the mystery is it is God’s pleasure to make everything right under Jesus. Whatever it is He is waiting for has obviously not yet happened. When it does He will act quickly lest He be guilty of prolonging the pain He is so often accused of causing.
Written by Roger Bothwell on July 21, 2003
Spring of Life, 151 Old Farm Rd. Leominster, MA 01453