Snorkeling in the Caribbean Sea is like snooping on a weird and wonderful metropolis. The classy, the clownish, the fat, the flat, the finned, and the flippered all slip between currents and mingle among the coral. What imagination God invested in that underwater world! And for what audience? So much of it is unseen by human eyes! During the years that I snorkeled in one small corner of that sea, I always had some version of the apostle Paul’s exclamation going through my head:

“Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!” (Romans 11:33).

What makes you say those words? An undeserved second chance? A blow that became a blessing? Paul’s jaw dropped when he considered God’s plan of salvation, one that germinated among the Jews but blew across the oceans to grace every nation: God became a man. Though innocent, he bore our guilt. Though eternal, he died. Though dead, he rose again in power. Paul was a master of theology, but when he tried to put words to God’s wisdom, he wasn’t splashing through a shallow puddle. He was pulling hard beneath the ocean’s surface to get a better view of some wonder—and he found himself out of breath and out of his depth. 

The next time you’re tempted to question God’s hand in your life, remember that God’s ways are no less marvelous because we can’t properly grasp them. Simply praise God for his bottomless wisdom and love.