Why I Love Parentheses

I'm the kind of person who just adores details.  I love knowing the background story of just about, well, everything.  That is why I deeply love parentheses.  Parentheses give you the "other" or deeper explanation of things.  I use them all the time; in blog posts, in letters (right, Kristen?) and sometimes I think I even use them when I speak. 

I also love studying the Bible.  But, alas!  The Bible is shockingly lacking in the parentheses department.  Have you noticed this?  When I'm studying, sometimes, I just want to shout out, "Details, God! Details!!"  My human heart craves to satisfy my inquiring mind.

What was Mary doing when Gabriel just appeared to her giving her absolutely unbelievable news?  How long were Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden before the Fall?  What did Bathsheba look like?  For that matter, what did JESUS look like?

I'm a woman.  I'm nosy.  I'm a nosy woman who loves details.  At times, it's been frustrating for me to try to understand what is not being said in the Scriptures.

But as I was reading in one of Beth Moore's books recently, guess what I found out?  She's a nosy woman who loves details, too!  And while there are so many details and truths that you can dig out by studying and becoming educated in culture, original language and meanings of words, there are some things that are still unclear.

Does this mean God is trying to confuse us and hide something from us?

No, dear friends, no!  That only means that the things that we might want to know are not important.

{GASP!}  How can a nosy woman who loves details say that horrible thing?

I know, I know.  But stay with me here.  I know that I can get way too caught up in the details and miss what is really happening.  I don't want to Scripture to become so muddied with mere human details that I miss what God is doing or saying.  This is all about Him, anyways.  Isn't it?

If my focus is on the insignificant things that merely satisfy my curiosity, I'm missing the true power of the simplicity of the Word of God.  I need to be looking, reading, devouring on what God is doing with the details secondary.

And while my womanly-nature struggles to accept that at times, He has shared everything that I need to live a life that glorifies and points others to Him.  With or without the details.

However, I can assure you with all certainty, I cannot wait to pin some of those people down when I get to heaven and pepper them with questions until my curiosity is fully satiated. 

That will take care of the first five thousand years.