Ice

Ice has been very good for science. There are things that we know about only because they have been frozen. Take ancient people for instance. I remember reading a couple of times about some scientists who found a man or woman who had been frozen for millions of years, and because that person had been frozen they were able to study them and find out some of the ways they were similar to and different from us.

But when things are frozen there are limitations on what you can know. The scientists who find those frozen people like to give them names like Ethel, but I doubt that there was really anyone named Ethel millions of years ago. We will never know their real names. We will never know what they loved to do, or if they had children, or what their dreams were. When people are frozen you can learn the facts and figures about them, but you can't know them.

Too often this has become the approach people take to the Bible. Because it is the Word of God people think they can just look up a verse and find the answer to any question they have just like you could measure Ethel and know how tall she was. But when we do this we make something beautiful and living and powerful into something frozen and stale and dead. The Bible is meant to interact with us as the people of God as we seek to follow Jesus. The Bible is one of the great gifts that God has given us to help us know Him. It is an aid in a real and loving relationship with our Creator and Saviour. When we look at the Bible like we look at Ethel, we may learn more about Him and about Jesus, but we will fail to know them.