Emily’s Bible
When I was 7 I knew this frizzy haired girl  (I don’t even remember her name, so I’ll call her Emily) whose face was framed in with a pair of massive granny glasses. She was clad in a denim jumper with those nasty white and black shoes, you know the ones I’m talking about. The kind that is only completed when you’re wearing socks that seem to explode at the top with ribbons and ‘poofs’. Well, Emily liked me. It was odd. Of course, I was a 7 year old boy. More interested in building forts with my friend Daniel than girls. Don’t get me wrong, I had a few crushes, but just not on this one. Oh, did I mention Emily was homeschooled? 

One Sunday morning during our Children’s Church’s special event called Bible Olympics (imagine Chariots of Fire music) Emily and I were sitting a row apart from each other. I was on the front row, she was on the second. During the Bible Olympics games the teams are split up boys vs girls, and I was on the team that was playing against Emily’s. We won the round of Bible trivia and paraded back to our seats with excitement. Then wam, smashed in the face with a hard back Bible… Emily threw a hard back Bible at my face. Why on Earth would a 7 year girl throw a hard-back Bible at the face of a boy she liked? This was only the beginning of the Great Confusion.

THE OBLIVIOUS JERK
I was 15-years-old when I thought I had girls completely figured out. I had grown out of my adolescent years of playing the game during recess where girls chased boys around trying to kiss them, and boys subsequently screamed and ran like the girl has the bubonic plague. Cooties were no longer a problem. I thought I was doing pretty good for a dude. Age 15 and I have the world of understanding girls checked off. “They’re not so complicated,” I thought, “Just give them chocolate, watch some chick-flicks with them, and talk about what’s wrong with them.” Good thing I had a girl-friend who told me bluntly that I was an oblivious jerk. But, of course, myself being the oblivious jerk that I was wrote her off, ”She doesn’t know what she’s talking about. I’m a genius. I don’t get why guys think girls are so confusing.”

THE OUTCOME
After 22 years of the proverbial hard-back Bibles being thrown at my face, I am resolute in thinking I will never fully understand women. And I’m pretty sure they will never fully understand me. I’ve talked with a lot of women who say that it’s guys who are the confusing ones. What? No way! Guys are easy to get… Girls are enigmas wrapped in a paradox hidden inside a treasure chest wrapped in bacon. But maybe this Massive Divide in understanding, the Great Confusion, is more than just guys being oblivious jerks. Maybe it’s that we’re fundamentally designed to reflect the unsearchable heart of a ‘confusing’ God? Genesis 1:27 says,

“So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”

More than just being physically male and female, God made our emotions, soul, mind and heart male and female. Both made in His image. The masculine and feminine soul both reflect different aspects in the heart of God. God’s heart contains both the valiant King who clothes His neck with thunder (Job 39:19), and the empathetic counselor who keeps track of all my sorrows, collects all my tears in His bottle, records each one in His book (Ps. 56:8). Maybe the reason we don’t understand each other is that God’s heart can never be fully understood. His emotions and character is vast, and ours is a dim reflection of that same vastness. Maybe next time you find yourself thinking, “I don’t understand them!” (it’s bound to happen) pause and ask God, “Is there something I can learn about Your heart through this? Can you teach me something about Your heart?” If not, then we’re gonna be in confusion for a very long time…