Only God has total knowledge

Christopher Russo The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Our family just recently returned from a vacation to some “magical” locations in Florida. On the last day of our trip we made a trip to the beach. Being from California, I have had many experiences at the beach, but had yet to experience the extremely warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

None of our seven children had been to the ocean at an age they could actually recall the experience. As we started our walk from the car to the ocean, each one of us started to experience a cough. We had no idea what was occurring. We hypothesized that the salty air was unfamiliar to our Missouri lungs. Had we known the actual reason why we were coughing, we probably would have overreacted and missed out on a memory making experience.

The reason for our cough actually sounds much more dangerous than it really is. When red tide is occurring off the coast, aerosol toxins can be blown toward the beach. This was the cause of our coughing. This actually posed no real risk to us, however, if we had known the cause of the coughing was red tide, we would have left due to our lack of knowledge.

After I found out the cause of the coughing a few days later, I started to wonder what type of experiences in life I would be missing out on if I always knew the “why” of a situation, but didn’t actually fully understand the “why.” Our Heavenly Father doesn’t always tell us why. I believe there is great safety in this. God knows that we do not always fully comprehend his ways and thoughts (see Isaiah 55:8).

God knows that we are able to learn much more through experience than from avoiding experiences. Some of those experiences may cause heartache. Some may be magical. All of them can bring us closer to God if we allow them.