WHEN
KNOWLEDGE IS TOO HEAVY

Topics: Answers; Childlikeness; Faith; Fathers; God as Father; God’s Sovereignty; Mysteries; Questions; Trust

References: Job 38–40; Isaiah 55:8–9; Matthew 18:5; Mark 9:42

Corrie ten Boom, at about age ten, was reading a poem as she and her father traveled by train from Amsterdam to Haarlem. “What does ‘sex sin’ mean?” she asked. She describes what happened next:

He turned to look at me, as he always did when answering a question, but, to my surprise, he said nothing. At last he stood up, lifted his traveling case from the rack over our heads, and set it on the floor. “Will you carry it off the train, Corrie?” he asked.

I stood up and tugged at it. It was crammed with watches and spare parts he had purchased that morning. “It’s too heavy,” I said.

“Yes,” he said. “And it would be a pretty poor father who would ask his little girl to carry such a load. It’s the same way, Corrie, with knowledge. Some knowledge is too heavy for children. When you are older and stronger, you can bear it. For now you must trust me to carry it for you.”

And I was satisfied. More than satisfied—wonderfully at peace. There were answers to this and all my hard questions; for now, I was content to leave them in my father’s keeping.

God is mysterious not simply because he is God, but because we are children. And in his love our childhood is protected. We should view both childhood and God’s mysteries as a source of wonder and even comfort; there is a Creator, and we are among the created. There are answers to all things safely in our Father’s keeping.

—Based on Corrie ten Boom, The Hiding Place (Guideposts Associates, 1971)