“Then the LORD answered Job from the whirlwind:
Have you gone to the sea’s sources,
    walked in the chamber of the deep?
Have death’s gates been revealed to you;
    can you see the gates of deep darkness?
Have you surveyed earth’s expanses?
    Tell me if you know everything about it.” (Job 38:1, 16-18) 

The Book of Job is one of my favorite texts.  After chapter upon chapter of silence, God finally speaks to Job in the final pages of the book.  Though God’s speech is not about Job’s misfortunes or explaining why bad things happen to good people.  It’s about the splendors of creation.  God is reminding Job in the whirlwind that there’s so much he will never understand about life, about the way the world actually works.  Can Job possibly comprehend all the wonders of the world?  Let alone have any control over any of them? 

I was thinking of this exchange between God and Job this week when watching a wonderful documentary called Secrets of the Whales from National Geographic (Neill and I have been streaming it on Disney+).  The series was filmed over three years in 24 different locations and focuses on whale cultures.  That’s right, it ends up that whales have unique social structures and communication skills—far more complex than many people realized.  The series follows orcas, humpbacks, belugas, narwhals, and sperm whales.  And it really is fascinating! 

In the end, there is so much that we human beings don’t know about creation.  Even the scientists and National Geographic photographers featured were baffled by some of the whale behaviors.  How would we modern people with all of our supposed sophistication answer God’s questions to Job? 

“Have you gone to the sea’s sources, walked in the chamber of the deep? 
Have you surveyed earth’s expanses? 
Tell me if you know everything about it.”

Perhaps humans can stop acting as if we are the center of the universe. 
Perhaps we can look on the wonders of creation with some humility. 
Because there is so much about God’s good creation that we will never fully understand. 

Just a thought this week, after spending some time learning about whales in all their glory! 

Love,
Pastor Lauren  

Photo by Thomas Kelley on Unsplash.