I, like so many people, love a good mystery. I have read all the Sherlock Holmes stories, the Father Brown stories, and other good mystery novels. I like trying to solve a good mystery.

A good mystery doesn’t reveal the mystery until the end. Throughout the story, evidence of importance points to that person and to the other person, and so on. However, you must read the end of the story to find out the answer to the mystery.

Mysteries don’t just exist in short story novels. In my case, the mysteries are throughout my life. I can’t go a day without some kind of mystery.

It’s not because I’m getting older either. As I remember my younger days, it was also full of mysteries.

I remember that Christmas Eve when I was going to solve the mystery of Santa Claus. I heard about this mysterious person, but I had never seen him and this Christmas, I promised myself, I am going to see who this Santa Claus really is.

That night, my parents sent me, my brother, and my sister to sleep early because it was Christmas Eve. We had our little party around the Christmas tree and admired where all the Christmas presents should be in the morning.

Then, when it was 10 o’clock, we were sent to our rooms to await the arrival of Santa Claus and Christmas presents. I decided to stay up and watch how Mr. Santa Claus did the mystery of him on Christmas Eve.

Hiding in the shadows, I could see my mother and father around the Christmas tree drinking Christmas punch, talking and laughing. They seemed to be having a good time. I was a little irritated because they were having a good time at my expense.

Then I heard my mother say, “Don’t you think it’s about time?”

My mother and father looked at each other and gave one of those hilarious little giggles. My father said, “Sure it is. Let’s go find them.”

At that time, I didn’t really understand what he was talking about. What were they supposed to go looking for? Why don’t they get out of the way so Santa Claus can come over and do his “thing”?

They soon disappeared and I was excited because I thought the next person to walk into the room would be Santa Claus himself.

I faintly heard from the hallway, “Shhhhhh, we don’t want to wake the kids.”

Then I saw something I never anticipated in my entire life. My mother and father came into the living room with Christmas presents and carefully placed them under the Christmas tree. They made several trips and it wasn’t long before the Christmas tree was laden with all kinds of Christmas gifts.

I just couldn’t believe my eyes. For years, my parents told us the story of Santa Claus along with Rudolf the red-nosed reindeer. They told it in such a way that I believed every word. Now, before me was the evidence that what they had been telling me all these years presented as a mystery, was not a mystery at all.

I’ve just solved the biggest mystery of my life up to that point. My parents were Santa Claus. It was hard for me to swallow that information. It wasn’t the mystery he wanted to solve.

Now I had another mystery on my hands. Do I tell my brother and sister that I had solved the biggest mystery we had in our house?

Revealing the mystery would give me great satisfaction.

On the other hand, revealing the mystery to them would greatly disappoint them.

Now that I’ve solved that mystery, what do I do? Do I seek my satisfaction or protect my brothers from disappointment?

It was then that I solved the greatest mystery of life. That being the case, every mystery you solve presents a greater mystery that you cannot solve. That seems to be the way of life.

I’m glad I learned it when I was young because it has been beneficial to me over the years. I have learned to live with mysteries without any desire to discover those mysteries.

When I say, “without desire,” I don’t mean it literally. Yes, there have been many mysteries that I have wanted to solve. But my greatest discipline is to let a mystery be a mystery.

This is very useful for me, especially since I became a husband.

Every husband knows that his wife, wonderful as she is, is a basket full of mysteries.

When I first got married, I thought my job was to solve every one of those mysteries. I learned very quickly that solving a marital mystery, particularly on the female side, is a pretty dangerous undertaking without good grades behind it.

Some things are better left in the mystery basket of life.

Paul understood this when he wrote: “And without question great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen by angels, preached to the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.” (1 Timothy 3:16).

Some mysteries are too sacred to try to solve, rather we should rejoice in the mysteries associated with our Father who is in heaven.