Ecclesiastes 7:24 "That which is, is far off, and deep, very deep; who can find it out?"

This seems like an appropriate verse for the day I visited the relics of St. Thomas Aquinas! He certainly plumbed the depths and shared his discoveries with us. But even he ended up saying that all he had written seemed like straw. Even he had the same feeling as the Preacher of Ecclesiastes - that true wisdom is far off, and very deep.

The unfathomable depths that the Preacher and St. Thomas saw, they saw because they were willing to dive down. When they did, they ultimately perceived that there is no bottom to God, that they could never fully understand nor explain Him. But that does not make their efforts meaningless, they added great value to the human experience by going as deep as they did. Because they were pursuing wisdom, God revealed to them as much of Himself as they could understand and communicate, and that was more than most of us would ever know without their efforts. 

We can take comfort in the fact that God's depths are not ones in which we can drown. We are free to go as deep as we desire and are able, or to stay near the surface. Either way, we are in His love and He will not let us get in over our heads.