The Privacy of our Thoughts

We occasionally read in the Word that Jehovah asks man, when yet He knows all and everything that man thinks; but this is so said because man believes that his thought is concealed from everyone because it is within him. The asking is in consequence of this appearance and the derivative belief.    (AC 5800)

This is so true. We think that our thoughts, our feelings, our fantasies, our true intentions are private. No one knows what we are really thinking. So we are free to think whatever we wish.

Our thoughts, our feelings, our fantasies, our intentions, however, are not really private! The Lord knows what we are thinking, what we are feeling, what we are fantasizing about, and what we are intending. Not only does he know what we are thinking, feeling, fantasizing, and intending, but so do the angels and the spirits who are associated with us. And sometimes, even our wives know, even when we are completely unaware of our own feelings and intentions.

If we would acknowledge the real truth, that our mental life is not private, but public; maybe we would feel the need to clean up our mental life. This is the point so much of the teachings in the Heavenly Doctrine. We are to examine our mental life, our thoughts, our feelings, our fantasies, our intentions; confess the evils we find there, and shun them as sins against the Lord. Do this, and the Lord reforms and regenerates us, He saves us from our sins.

 

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The innocence of old age

We read in Arcana Celestia, 5608.9:

As regards the innocence present in young children, this is solely external, not internal; and because it is not internal it cannot be linked to any wisdom and exist together with it. But the innocence in angels, especially in those of the third heaven, is internal, and so exists joined to wisdom, 2305, 2306, 3494, 4563, 4797. Furthermore the human being has been created in such a way that when he grows old and becomes like a young child, the innocence of wisdom links itself to the innocence of ignorance that had been his when he was a young child, and in this condition, as a true young child, he passes over into the next life.

Perhaps the reason reason that the innocence of wisdom and the innocence of ignorance can only be conjoined in old age, is that only in old age have you lived long enough to learn a few important truths. For example:

• As you age you begin to see that life is complex. You begin to realize that you don’t see the whole picture, that your solutions only cover some of the issues. You learn to pray that the unintended consequences of your solutions are relatively harmless.
• As you age, if you are willing, you begin to that Lord’s wisdom in much higher than yours, that He brings out good where you would not imagine.

So as you age, you come into the innocence of wisdom because you acknowledge the Lord’s wisdom and your own ignorance. This allows the Lord to conjoin His innocence of wisdom in you with your innocence of ignorance.