Through a glass, darkly

I've been thinking more and more lately about our human view on God and the heavens, and just how much we don't know. I think in our religion we are blessed to have a lot of revealed information, but we take liberties and make assumptions about so much. We extrapolate from our own reality and paste that onto God and the eternities. The more I think about it, the crazier it is that we can really presume to know the mind of God. I think it is important to have, as best as we can, a correct perception and understanding of God (as Joseph Smith said), but even with the most that we can comprehend, we still must be seeing such a small picture. It's in some ways similar to the blind man being led around the elephant for the first time, feelng various parts of it with his hands and saying "Ahh...an elephant is very much like a wall. Oh, it seems the elephant is very much like a tree."

We very often see examples of the "learned who think they are wise" (2 Nephi 9:28) and often associate this idea with secular learning, and those who are too caught up in the knowledge of worldly things thinking that they have no need for the gospel, and view such things as simplistic or beneath their intelligence. But what about those who think they are spiritually wise? David has some relatives who most assuredly fall into that category. In fact, they have stopped attending Sunday school as they prefer to have their own discussions at home because they think they know more than the teacher and other ward members. But the thing is, God didn't command us to meet together as a Church until we were sufficiently educated, then we can fraction off and be separate again. He said, "Be one, and if ye are not one ye are not mine" (Doct&Cov 38:27) and "When thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren" (Luke 22:32). As much as we might prefer otherwise, we cannot live the Gospel as a hermit.

So, I think I am realizing more and more the truth of 1 Corinthians 13:12:
For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part, but then shall I know even as also I am known.

Despite all of the revelations we as a Church have received, despite the mysteries of God that have been thus far unfolded to us, we still know so very little. I guess this is what it means to become again as a little child (Matt 18:3, Mosiah 3:18, 3 Nephi 11:37-38). To appreciate that there is much that we cannot understand at present, but not to get upset about it. God gives us sufficient information to do what we need to do, but not usually enough to answer all of our "pressing issues". Life is, after all, a test to see whether we will do all things that the Lord has commanded (Abraham 3:25).