“My thoughts are not your thoughts,” says the Lord in Isaiah 55, “neither are your ways my ways.” He adds, “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9).
Nine chapters later, the children of Israel testify to this same truth as they plead for Him to come to them:
Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence,
Isaiah 64:1-2, 4
As when the melting fire burneth, the fire causeth the waters to boil, to make thy name known to thine adversaries, that the nations may tremble at thy presence! …
For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him.
The apostle Paul quoted a version of that final verse to explain that the Spirit of the Lord can teach us things that we can’t learn through our natural senses. “As it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God” (1 Corinthians 2:9-10).
During the Savior’s visit to the Americas following His resurrection, He said a prayer so sublime that it cannot be recorded. “The things which he prayed cannot be written,” Mormon wrote (3 Nephi 17:15). He meant that although the people understood the prayer, they were unable to recreate it, not merely that they were forbidden to do so (see also 3 Nephi 19:31-34; note the contrast with 3 Nephi 26:16-18, where they were forbidden to write). The people who heard this prayer used Isaiah’s words to describe their experience:
And after this manner do they bear record: The eye hath never seen, neither hath the ear heard, before, so great and marvelous things as we saw and heard Jesus speak unto the Father;
3 Nephi 17:16-17
And no tongue can speak, neither can there be written by any man, neither can the hearts of men conceive so great and marvelous things as we both saw and heard Jesus speak; and no one can conceive of the joy which filled our souls at the time we heard him pray for us unto the Father.
God’s blessings are unfathomable to us. What a powerful thing to know that when the heavens are rent and when we are in His presence, we will learn truths and feel joy that we can’t begin to conceive of in our current state.
Today, like the ancient Israelites, I will look forward to the time when I can stand joyfully in God’s presence, learning things which my eyes have never seen and my ears have never heard.
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