Appreciating Mystery

During a rainstorm last week with no electricity, the kids and I decided it was the perfect time to go to the bookstore.  Along the way, we noticed many local businesses were closing their doors for the day because they didn't have electricity, either.  We had fun reading the store signs and speculating who had electricity and who didn't and what problems that might cause for them.  Did the employees get paid for the day?  Would the restaurant have to throw away food?  What would happen at the grocery store?  How long can they afford for the electricity to be out without having to throw away food?  Do they have generators?
I love a good mystery.
I'm not necessarily talking about books, although I do enjoy mystery books as well.  I'm talking about mysteries in daily life.  Curiosity might have killed the cat, but it also propels me to a sense of wonder and discovery about the world around me.
We live in a city full of construction.  It seems that on our daily route, a building is always being built or torn down.  Both provide endless fascination and speculation for everyone in my car.  My children and I love to sit and watch demolition crews.  We also love to look at the details of a building under construction, trying to decide what kind of building it will be.  Is it a house?  A gas station?  A restaurant?  Or, my personal favorite, a cute little boutique?
My favorite part about Christmas and all other gift-giving occasions is the mystery.  Not the gift itself, or even giving the gifts, but the mystery.  I love wrapping packages into unrecognizable shapes.  I love not knowing what is inside the packages I receive.
Our world is filled with mystery, and I love that my children share curiosity with me.  At least once a week we research something to learn more about it.  When they ask a question, I am not afraid to admit I don't know the answer.  We brainstorm together what the answer might be, and then when we get home, we Google it.  My 21st century children don't have to search through indexes of encyclopedias and then look in the appropriate volume.  Google is the source of all answers for them.
The problem with Google, though, is that many mysteries can be solved instantly with it.  For me, it's more fun to live in the speculation stage because once you know the answer, the mystery is over.
That's a huge part of what I love about faith.  I don't care how many times you Google the mysteries of faith, God, and the human spirit, you can't decode an answer to your question because no one knows it.  Life is its own greatest mystery.

(piku on sxc.hu)