I ran into this quote and thought experiment from J.I. Packard

  I am still trying to absorb and understand this example of the futility of trying to understand God in all His decisions....

"Packer, Wisdom, and the Signal Box

In Scripture, Theology on 02/28/2011 at 10:27 AM

I try not to post things that are too long. However, there is no way to communicate this image without the illustration.

If you stand at the end of a platform on York station, you can watch a constant succession of engine and train movements which, if you are a railway enthusiast, will greatly fascinate you. But you will only be able to form a very rough and general idea of the overall plan in terms of which all these movements are being determined.

If, however, you are privileged enough to be taken by one of the higher-ups into the magnificent electrical signal-box that lies athwart platforms 7 and 8, you will see on the longest wall a diagram of the entire track layout for five miles on either side of the station, with little glow-worm lights moving or stationary on different tracks to show the signalman at a glance exactly where every engine and train is. At once you will be able to look at the whole situation through the eyes of the men who control it: you will see from the diagram why it was that this train had to be signaled to a halt, and that one diverted from its normal running line, and that one parked temporarily in a siding. The why and the wherefore of all these movements becomes plain, once you can see the overall position.

Now, the mistake that is commonly made is to suppose that this is an illustration of what God does when He bestows wisdom: to suppose, in other words, that the gift of wisdom consists in a deepened insight into the providential meaning and purpose of events going on around us, an ability to see why God has done what He has done in a particular case, ans what He is going to do next.

People feel that if they were really walking close to God…then they would, so to speak, find themselves in the signal-box…But the gift of wisdom actually presupposes our conscious inability to (get in the signal box).

J.I. Packer, Knowing God, p. 91-2. "