The Holy Bible. Photo: Joshimer Biñas, pexels.com
What you can’t see can’t hurt you…
This advertising headline for a water-tank cleaning service, caught my attention. It went on to state that such a wild statement has zero truth to it. It made the point that harmful unseen bacteria can lurk in water tanks. Of course multitudes of invisible things can hurt us.
Murray Smith
That doesn’t hand us a life-sentence of living in fear under some kind of siege complex. It means there’s wisdom in being aware of facts. Many elements not visible to us could be harmful and we’re well advised to be informed in taking appropriate precautions. A family I knew lost a child who dived into hot mineral pools many years ago. That tragedy resulted from a rare occurrence of amoebic meningitis – microscopic amoeba entering the brain of a fully immersed swimmer through the nasal passages, causing fatal brain tissue damage.
Micro-biology has identified a host of potentially harmful things we could never be aware of merely relying on eyesight. Similarly, we cannot see ‘radiation’ from X-rays with the naked eye – but there’s good reason that radiographers when doing X-rays or scans, slip behind a screen or protective barrier as a precaution against ongoing exposure causing damage to their health.
Another comparably illogical statement to “What you can’t see can’t hurt you”, is, “What you don’t know can’t hurt you”. What a person doesn’t know could kill them. Ignorance of inherent danger for example, in a faulty electrical fitting doesn’t prevent it being harmful. What you don’t know can hurt you significantly, like a serious undiagnosed medical issue such as a brain tumour. Dangers that we are unaware of can be the most damaging and just being blissfully ignorant of them offers no basis for peace.
Confronting uncomfortable truth is better than remaining ignorant even though sometimes becoming informed, might initially be troubling…it’s still better than ignorance.
There’s many statements in the Bible about not remaining ignorant -particularly of spiritual truth. Complacent lack of understanding and knowledge, leads to deception and destruction. There is a distinction between innocent ignorance and wilful ignorance, though neither end well. I believe many people today are passively ignorant of spiritual realities due to lack of exposure to truth or opportunity to hear about God’s love for them and His desire to ensure their eternal salvation. They are unaware of the spiritual battle warring for their soul.
The fact is, two very real spiritual ‘kingdoms’ exist and every individual stands in allegiance to one or the other. The unseen evil rule of darkness is intent on the contamination of humanity to the point of its destruction. God’s provision for our free transference out of darkness to light includes forgiveness and wholeness – it’s by His redeeming gift of mercy and grace, nothing to do with any claim we mistakenly hold onto of being a “good person”. We all fall short, but through faith in Jesus Christ we’re made ‘right’ and can discover peace and perspective in uncertain times.
Flat Lay of the Holy Bible and Items on the Desk. Photo: Chris Liu, pexels.com
