I have been thinking about this word for a few days now and while the academic part of my brain understands the word means to comprehend, my inner child keeps thinking about a time of sitting under my Bubby’s needlepoint. I remember it as if it was yesterday, but it was now probably 50 years ago, if not more. She was working on piece of needlepoint, sitting by her feet, and looking it up, all I could see was the underside with strings of yarn going all different places and many little knots. I remember wondering why she would want to create something so ugly, when we could be doing making something amazing like blowing bubbles that the light shone through and then floated up to heaven. Then she would have me climb up on her lap and look at her creation and it always looked so beautiful. I never saw any of the knots, strings, or anything else, which took away from its beauty. I could only see how it all came together to form one beautiful picture. It was at this young age, that my Bubby taught me that our understandings of the Ultimate Creator’s ways are not ours. The Ultimate sees things in one way and we see them in another. My Bubby taught me that we are standing under the Creator’s masterpiece and so we see things one way. However, there are moments in our life, when the Creator provides us with the opportunity to see the larger picture, just as my Bubby had helped me.
My Bubby also taught me that sometimes I needed to understand that I was not meant to understand and some things I could not comprehend. This is where faith in the Ultimate came into play. We have to know in the core of our being that the Ultimate understands things that are beyond our comprehension. We can comprehend what we can and what we are meant to know, but we also have to understand that we may never comprehend it all, that is something we have to understand.
Similarly, there are times we need to understand that the work that needs to be done is not for us to do. I remember a story in John 5 where Jesus is at the pool of Bethseda where masses of people are gathered, attempting to get into this pool of healing waters. Jesus stops, heals one person and leaves. Had he been led to heal everyone there he would and could have. However, his call was to heal this one man and move on in his own journey. It was the work of others to heal and minister to the others waiting for healing in their lives. Sometimes it is not that the work does not need to be done, but that we need to understand that it is not our job to do that work. It is the work of the Ultimate to ensure that the light workers and energy healers are where they are supposed to be and are connected with those who have been sent to them. It is important to understand that not all jobs are ours; most of the work to be done in the universe is for others, not for us.
Sometimes what we have to understand about understanding is about our relationship with others and ourselves. Sometimes though what we need to understand about understanding is that comprehending what we need to comprehend is beyond our own understanding.