Devotional: The Hole Under the Old Mansion

Just off to the right of this picture, there were stairs that went down to a dirt basement under the house. There was also an area that was a crawl space.  It was in this area that the hole spoken of in this devotional was found.


The Hole Under the Old Mansion

by Marsha Iddings

Romans 11:33-36 O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor? Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.


It wasn't until after we had moved from the old mansion that my father told us that under it he had found a hole. It was maybe less than the size of a man-hole cover. He said he had shined a flashlight down the hole but the light just disappeared. It never hit on anything to reflect it back. He also dropped some rocks down the hole to see if he could hear them hit bottom, but he could never hear them hit the bottom. He knew it would freak my mother out to know there was a hole like this under the house, so he never told anyone about it until we had moved.


There were many old mining tunnels under Bellingham that were not used anymore and my father surmised that perhaps this was an air shaft for a deep mine tunnel. We will probably never know for sure.


The Scripture says, "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!" The Apostle Paul seems almost overcome by the thought of the wisdom and knowledge of God. That hole under the old mansion didn't seem to have a bottom to it. It just seemed to go on and on, deeper and deeper with no end. This is how rich God's wisdom and knowledge is. There is no end to it. It is so deep that we can't even begin to understand it. I suspect that this is why there are some concepts in the Bible such as the Trinity and God's sovereignty that are hard for us mere humans to understand. His ways are just past finding out. We have to be very careful that when we come to the Bible and find teachings that don't make sense to us that we don't twist it up in order to make human sense out of it. We need to let God be God and realize that there are some things that we just are not going to understand this side of heaven. God is just too big for us to comprehend.


This brings much comfort to me to know that my God is this great. I can trust Him because He knows the beginning from the end and He knows the purposes He has in mind for my life. The more I study the Bible the bigger God becomes to me. Worship at His feet. "For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen."