What would Alan Alexander Milne have thought of the Super Sleuths? Could the author of Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner have imagined his beloved characters—those based on his own son Christopher Robin and the boy’s stuffed animals—at work solving mysteries in a series of present-day Disney films? Perhaps. After all, A. A. Milne wrote a variety of novels and plays, among them a “whodunit” entitled The Red House Mystery, a book that was quite popular in its day. Converting the hundred-acre wood into a hundred-acre crime scene and Tigger and Pooh into Super Sleuths, however, is a sign of our preoccupation with mystery and suspense—even in children’s stories. All is not mystery.

No book has been more widely misread and misunderstood than the Bible. Described as too difficult to understand, it is arguably avoided and unread by more than any other text, as well. That is unfortunate, for the Scriptures contain great truths essential for spiritual health and fulfillment in life. Apparently, thousands of years ago, Moses’ audience was concerned about the same things. The Almighty’s response to them is of value to us. “Heed the voice of the Lord, your God, and keep his commandments,” the writer of Deuteronomy recorded. “This is not too mysterious and remote for you. It is not up in the sky, that you should say, ‘Who will go up in the sky to get it for us and tell us of it, that we may carry it out?’ Nor is it across the sea. No, it is something very near to you, already in your mouths and in your hearts. You have only to carry it out.' ” In other words, you know this stuff. You get this. Don’t act like you don’t understand. You might act like it, but this is not a mystery.

If the Bible is puzzling to some, surely the incarnation of Christ is the most mysterious of the stories within it. St. Paul pointedly addressed that reality in his Letter to the Colossians. “I am a minister in accordance with God’s stewardship given to me to bring to completion for you the word of God, the mystery hidden from ages and from generations past. But now it has been manifested to his holy ones, to whom God chose to make known the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; it is Christ in you, the hope for glory. It is he whom we proclaim, admonishing everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone perfect in Christ.”