Nocturnal Mystery

Reading the Scripture is always different.  There are times when the reading seems to take us down a road so well traveled we expect every twist and turn encountered.  And, then there are other trips through its pages which feel more like an adventure as surprises unfold before us.  I remember long years ago some author whose name is now forgotten writing a book about God being a surprising God.  It remains a good way to speak of Him.  He is not only full of surprises as He reveals Himself to us in the ongoing moments of our life, but He has also left them littered across the  pages of His holy Word.   

Some late night reading brought me to such a place last night.  While meandering through the early verses of Mark, I ran into that section about the baptism of Jesus.  It said, "And just as He was coming out of the water, He saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on Him."  (Mark 1:10)  Those words from Mark about the heavens being torn apart contain much more drama than Matthew and Luke as they simply wrote about the heavens being opened.  (Matthew 3:16, Luke 3:21)    

All I could do was sit for a spell with those two radically different images.  Matthew and Luke seem to be describing someone opening a door and Mark takes us into something like a violent act in the heavens such as that moment when the lightning and thunder come at once to split the air around us.  I am still sitting with it this morning.  Wondering.  I am sure from past experience that there is something I am missing.  At this moment I do not see it.  However, I figure to sit with it for awhile and maybe at some point I will find a open window into the mystery.