Why do we stiff-arm God?

July 28, 2017

Maria Luke 15, Psalm 34, Trinity , , , 2 Comments

Why are we all so afraid of God?  We must be, for we hold back giving Him ALL of our hearts and All of our wills. How do I know this about you?  I know my own heart. And I consider myself a Christian!

Let’s imagine a happily married couple. They have learned to live secure and content in their relationship. They savor one another’s company.  People who know them observe how they exude mutual requited joy and trust.  The man and woman skillfully craft beautiful, creative works of art. They can work side by side for hours, marveling as beauty emerges from their able hands.

One day their thoughts turn to opening their home to children in order to include others in their happiness. Their motive?  Simply this: they understand the fundamental design of the universe, that a pleasure shared is a pleasure multiplied and intensified.  As they make plans to expand their family, their exuberance grows at the prospect of bringing new family members into their happy union.  They eagerly talk about the children on whom they will lavish love.  They discuss how they will expose them to Truth and Beauty.  They talk about training these little ones in the pursuit of Goodness and authentic creative happiness so they can share their parents’ joy.

Do they NEED these children?  No, for they lack nothing.  They aren’t looking for children…

  • to complete them
  • to work for them
  • to fulfill unmet dreams in their stead

Their exuberance just bubbles over.  Love abounds and seeks a recipient.  No strings attached.

The longer I read the Bible, the clearer grows my understanding of God.  We, humans, were created in the image of this happy, triune divine Creator and Lover. The perfect God already lives in relationship as Father, Son, and Divine Spirit.  He lacks nothing. He is the archetype of perfection.  By nature, Joy overflows.

Luke records my favorite passage in the Bible about the loving ‘Father-ness’ of our God.  “So he got up and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion for him, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.” (Luke 15:20)

Why do we hold back from running to embrace Him? We have nothing to fear.  Taste and see that the Lord is good! Psalm 34:8

Love rolls downhill

June 30, 2013

Maria Deuteronomy, Isaiah, Love, Trinity, Uncategorized , , 1 Comment

“Love me, love my dog!” were words we often heard when we would have dinner with my dad.  He had 2 spoiled poodles that he adored.  And that love was definitely requited!

It seems to me that God, the Father exhorts us likewise:  “If you love me, then you’ll love my Son!”

I’ve been reading a book about the Trinity.

And already, having enjoyed my way through the introduction and into Chapter 1, I’m hooked!  Michael Reeves asserts straight away that a primary characteristic of God is His Fatherhood.  He’s always been Father. And for Him to BE Father requires God the Son to have eternally existed as well.

We know that for God to BE God means that He doesn’t change.  What follows then is this:  He couldn’t have been single God who created the Son, thus adding ‘Father’ to His résumé.  God as Father and God as Son have co-existed since eternity.  (I won’t expand this discussion today by delving into God the Holy Spirit)

Of course I pray most often to God as Father. Furthermore I know that the Bible is replete with references to God as Father.  Yet, I’m seeing divine Fatherhood in a wholly/holy different light.  I’m noticing how often God is really called Father in both the Old and the New Testament. Although more developed in the NT, the Fatherhood of God is nonetheless THERE – for example:

          “The LORD your God who goes before you will Himself fight on your behalf, just as He did for you in Egypt before your eyes, and in the wilderness where you saw how the LORD your God carried you, just as a man carries his son, in all the way which you have walked until you came to this place.” (Deuteronomy 1:30-31)

          “But now, O LORD, You are our Father, We are the clay, and You our potter; And all of us are the work of Your hand.” (Isaiah 64:8)

So….you say, what’s new about that? Just that, Father-love is different than love between equals.  Hear me out…I’ll try not to be heretical or introduce the idea that God the Father and God the Son are not one.  They ARE one and they DO exhibit the same essence and same nature, BUT…their roles are different.

·         The Father loves the Son and the Son delights to obey the Father. But it doesn’t stop there.

·         The Son loves the Church and the Church is called to lovingly submit to/obey the Son.

·          Husbands love their wives and wives are called to delight in respectfully and lovingly helping (and submitting when necessary) their husbands.

·          Moms love their children and children are to respectfully and lovingly help and submit to their moms. (Dads are to train their kids)

·         Humans love their animals and their animals, if well trained, will devotedly and joyfully follow their masters.

In other words, love flows downhill.

I used to feel guilty because I sensed that I loved people unequally.  For example – I always knew my mom loved me with an intensity that I didn’t reciprocate. Yet when I became a parent, I understood that kind of love.  I think Mike and I love each other differently, too.  And we definitely love our cats MORE than they love us. (Think about our fears as our pets age!)

What does the fact that God loves us more and differently do for our security? (Take as a given that His love for us is qualitatively/quantitatively beyond our capacity to imagine.) For one thing, it lifts the guilt I have always felt?  And I feel more reassured and secure that God’s love won’t ever depart from me.  He can’t NOT love me;  it’s His nature to love His children.

I’ll leave you with this question– How do you see love between friends?

 PS:  I’ve just started a blog entitled about Logic for the ordinary person – in it I discuss in bite-sized measures what I have learned from teaching formal and informal logic to young teens.   Surprised by Logic

 

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