I just finished reading a book that spelled everything out.

It was a cozy mystery in the romantic suspense subgenre — the type of book that’s meant to carry the reader out of their world of problems and worries for a little while and into an imaginary world where characters with double lives and double dimples battle the forces standing between them and the happily ever after that is rightfully theirs. This book did a good job of being what it is.

Nonetheless, I had trouble enjoying it. It seemed to me that everything was overstated. Nothing was chanced that the reader might miss it or fail to follow the character’s train of thought in the discovery of clues or developing emotions. The book had no expectations of me as a reader.

I’m not criticizing people who appreciate that type of book, by any means. I know people whose position is that their daily lives present plenty to think about, and they prefer lighter entertainment that does not propose heavy or ambiguous issues. I say so because I really don’t want to come down on the wrong side of the “intellectual snobbery” line. I’m just saying that I didn’t prefer having all the clues and conclusions drawn for me. There was hardly room to think about the mystery between the leading questions and characters’ “A-ha!” moments.

Nonetheless, I can appreciate the fact that there are different types of mysteries for different types of readers. Some want the story revealed to them, others want to ruminate on the clues. A few might even eschew a clear-cut tale with all loose ends tied, preferring open-ended questions left in the tale.

One amazing thing about the Bible is that it speaks to all kinds. It has a straightforward message of salvation, open-ended questions, and the promise that what we now see dimly we will one day see face to face and what we know now in part we will one day know fully. (See 1 Corinthians 13:12 for reference.)

Paul wrote in Colossians 2:1-3, “For I want you to know how great a struggle I have on your behalf and for those who are at Laodicea, and for all those who have not personally seen my face, that their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together in love, and attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ Himself, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” In short, this mystery should be known!

Even so, it’s only through the Spirit of God and not the perception of man that this wisdom comes, as evidenced in 1 Corinthians 2:6-10: “Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature; a wisdom, however, not of this age nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away; but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory, the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory; but just as it is written, ‘Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love Him.’ For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.”