I Don’t Understand

Our gooseberries have done well this year. Rachel has made excellent crumbles, pies… and gooseberry jam.

Red raspberries and strawberries make red jam, blackcurrants and blackberries make a blackish jam. But green gooseberries… green jam? No! It’s a brownish red. I don’t understand.

Like the old riddle we learnt as children: ‘Why does a brown cow eat green grass and give white milk?’ I didn’t understand.

When I was teaching the more I saw, the more I learnt, but the less I understood… For example:

Some parents were strict; with rules and strong discipline some children thrived, but others rebelled. Other parents were relaxed and laid back; some children blossomed with this freedom, whilst others lacked guidance and lost their way. I still don’t understand.  

And in churches… some children follow their parents in their faith, whilst others reject their parents’ wishes and guidance.

Experts say wise words. I still don’t really understand.

I’m continuing to enjoy ‘Proverbs’. This morning: ‘Like one who seizes a dog by the ears is a passer-by who meddles in a quarrel not his own’ (26:17).

And: ‘Better to live on a corner or the roof than share a house with a quarrelsome wife’ (25:24)… Wise King Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines… Too many questions come to mind! …I don’t understand!

Yesterday we drove from Lowestoft to Derbyshire through one or two very heavy showers. Lorries were throwing out a lot of spray and vision was limited…

I used to think that my faith was about what – and who – I believed in and what I could understand. Increasingly I think that faith is about limited vision, accepting what I don’t understand and trusting one who is greater than me.

An old hymn says: ‘Help me to walk aright, more by faith less by sight.’

…and ‘Shine through the cloud and rain, through sorrow toil and pain, make thou my pathway plain…’

‘I don’t understand’ is OK!