In the world of Star Trek, there is technology which allows for the creation of holographic places and people. On Voyager, Captain Janeway has recreated Leonardo Da Vinci and has been studying from him. In this episode, Da Vinci has been taken out of his recreated Florance, Italy and has seen the marvelous technology of the present day. This is causing the great thinking and inventor much confusion as he tries to comprehend what he has just seen.
Janeway: Let me ask you something. If you were something other than a human being. If you were a different kind of animal. If you were a small bird, a sparrow. What would your world be like?
Da Vinci: I should make my home in a tree, in the branch of an elm. I should hunt insects for food, straw for my nest and in the springtime I should sing for a companion.
Janeway: And you would know nothing of the politics of Florence, the cutting of marble or mathematics.
Da Vinci: Of course not.
Janeway: But why not?
Da Vinci: My mind would be too small.
Janeway: As a sparrow your mind would be too small. Even with the best of teachers?
Da Vinci: If Aristotle himself were to perch on my branch and lecture till he fell off from exhaustion, still the limits of my mind would prevent me from understanding.
Janeway: And as a man can you accept that there may be certain realities beyond the limits of your comprehension?
Da Vinci: I could not accept that. And I would be a fool.
Da Vinci is made to realize that just as human things are more than an animal can comprehend, so there may be things that his human mind can't comprehend.
This is so true for us as well. God created our mind. Being created in Him image, it is more like Him than any other animal is. We can think, reason, feel, create and dream. I think that our mind was created such that we could recognise God and know Him.
However, knowing and comprehending are too different things entirely. God has an eternal mind, ours is limited and finite. We can never get all that God is into our minds to fully grasp Him entirely. We can get bits and pieces, but then we'll forget those as we discover something new.
So we will never fully understand God, and that's ok. We should be able, like Da Vinci in our TV show, to accept that limitation. Much like a child accepts that their father knows and understands more than them, so we should trust God.
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