Applied Mathematics

"lean not on your own understanding"

Proverbs 3:5

I had an epiphany the other day ~ I love it when that happens.  And it was about God.  Those are the best kind.   All of a sudden, in a conversation with one of my awesome, amazing kids, I  had a new insight into God.

Guess what the topic of conversation was.  No, we weren't discussing the Bible, or even anything spiritual.

It was a school-related discussion (we do school all year round, with breaks here and there), but it wasn't literature, or even science.  It was math.  That is not a topic wherein I expect to receive a revelation about God.  Unless, of course, we're talking about the Fibonacci Sequence.  But that's for another time...

You see, said child was very frustrated with math.  Which is perfectly understandable.  As the teacher, I sometimes have to say things like, "I know, but it is.  Just accept it."  While we want our children to understand that ten groups of ten equals one hundred, we also drill them to get them to memorize their times tables.  In some cases, they are expected to memorize them before they have understanding of the concept.

But what I wanted on this day was for my child to stop fighting the facts.  Whether or not we understand why math concepts are true, they are true.   They will never change.  I'm not sure we can say that about anything else.  Subjects like literature and philosophy are open to interpretation, and even science has tremendous weak areas.  Yes, there are many facts in science that are inarguable, but there are many more that are not.  And many of the things we know are true now, we were wrong about for a long time.

But not math.   Math is visible; unmistakeable.  Two plus two will always equal four.  And the same is true of every fact in math.  This is what I tried to say to my child.  Embrace the consistency of math.  Once you understand a concept in math, it can never be taken away from you.  It will never change.  If you get something wrong, you can know it's really wrong; it's not just that your teacher has a different style than you do.   And once you get it right, you can know that you'll always get it right.

Math is not trying to be tricky.  Whether or not we understand it, it is what it is.  And the more we study, the more we'll understand.

I don't know what I don't know about God, but I know there are things I don't know about God.  There are things we can't understand yet, and there are things we won't be able to understand until we see Him face to face.  "We know that when Christ appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is." (1 John 3:2)

 He is omniscient, and omnipresent; infinite and triune.   And we are only touching the edge of understanding.  The important thing is to rest in the knowledge we have gained, while understanding how much more there is to understand.

~ "And these are but the outer fringe of His works;

how faint the whisper we hear of Him!

Who then can understand the thunder of His power?" ~

Job 26:14