Sustenance for The Spirit
This word puzzled me…unsearchable. It is found in Ephesians 3:8 as a descriptor for the riches found in Christ. The verse reads like this:
“To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ,” (RSV)
As I reflected on what would be considered unsearchable, I began thinking of elements that would be considered spiritual, intangible in nature. By definition, the “riches of Christ” are evidently things which cannot be sought. We can’t seek and find as in other places in scripture (Matthew 7:8, Luke 11:10, Jeremiah 29:13). In other versions, words like boundless or endless are used in place of unsearchable, indicating an eternal nature of these “riches of Christ.”
This can be both comforting and disheartening. As a Christian, living a life committed to our Lord and Savior will be blessed with wonderful gifts that we don’t fully recognize at times. It is just…awesome. I search for words because these gifts are indescribable as well as unsearchable. But, for humans who are entrenched in a physical existence, to be unable to “search” leaves us in a kind of faith limbo at times. The gifts are there, but we haven’t stressed, we haven’t worked, we haven’t even known to desire them. Sometimes our humanness gets in the way of accepting the true heavenly blessings on this earth. In Jennie Allen’s book, Anything, she says,
“There is another normal — it is invisible and lasts forever and it doesn’t fall down.
The ironic thing about believing in God and supernatural things is that the invisible stuff is actually the most trustworthy, the most stable. So the concrete things we can see and touch, they become the wind, they become the things we try to catch, and over and over, they pass through our fingers and souls, keeping us empty. But when I take my empty self to God, he feels familiar and stable and more like concrete than wind. (p. 46)
What are these “invisible” things? I could list things like forgiveness, mercy, grace, peace and love…but even trying to make a list seems inadequate. I think we just have to be aware of God’s presence as much as possible. That is where we “find” the unsearchable.
Have a great day!
