"Unless you believe you will not understand" is alleged to be a mistranslation of Isaiah 7:9.But whatever the provenance or accuracy of the rendering, the thought is accurate. God answers (since "rewards" will scandalize those who have taken one sip and think they have drained the cup) faith with increased understanding, always, as it seems, asking us to take the first step out of love for Him. Only after we have stepped off the edge do we see that it was He all along, from before the idea of taking any steps at all occurred to us. He made our feet itch; He made us long to set out; He brought us to the edge; He gave us the "subjective principle of volition (Kant)" to step out over the edge; and then it was He who showed us how we were surrounded, protected, born up -- so that our foot would not be suffered to dash itself against the least little stone -- with love.
This is one game, the only game,where the only smart thing to do is bet all you have on each roll.
"This is a remarkably important story."
Indeed it is, on many levels. Tonight, for those of us in The Church, it can teach us among other lessons that what we have been seeing here on this thread and our reactions to it, have likely been very, very unfair. Now I'm going to be charged with Gnosticism, but you know what I mean.