God Loves

God loves fiercely—always has, always will. Imagine this heavenly conversation:

"Beautiful, isn't it?"

The iridescent blue orb called Earth hung like a jeweled pendant in the dark velvet of space. If One looked through the atmosphere that encased the globe, He could see that it was already teeming with life: fish in the seas, birds in the air, all kinds of creeping and walking creatures on the dry land.

"Yes, it is. It's all quite good, but—" He paused.

"I know. It isn't finished yet, is it?"

"True. It isn't finished yet."

They waited.

"Let us make mankind," One said. "Make him in our image! We will provide for him, nurture him, and most of all, love him!"

"Yes, oh yes! But wait! You said 'in our image'?"

"Yes, according to our own likeness."

"We would give him a will? He could choose?"

"Yes."

"But—but he may not love us back!"

"Yes, he may not."

They waited again.

"We should make man," One finally said, "and we should make him with a heart like ours—a heart to will, to create, to love and be loved."

"We know what will happen . . . " The sad statement hung in the air, unended.

"Yes, we know. But some will turn their hearts toward us. And they are worth it."

"Oh yes!  I would rather die than live without them."

And so the work of creation, including the making of mankind, was finished.

You would think that we would love God fiercely in return, wouldn't you? Sometimes we do.

Often we do not.

MaryMartha

The Shack (Book)

I recently finished reading, “The Shack,” a controversial but wildly popular new book of Christian fiction. (A few days ago, #2 on the USA Today bestseller list of trade paperbacks; yesterday #1 on the NY Times list of the same!) It has big-name recommendations printed right on the cover, and can a million or so people be wrong? (Yes, of course.) Even so, I found it less than engaging as a novel, not having the captivating beauty or staggering clarity I was told to expect. It does have, however, many very long passages of didactics by God the Father who appears to the main character as a large, outspoken black woman who loves to cook. Aided by an Asian-woman Holy Spirit who gardens in blue jeans, and by Jesus—a Jewish carpenter, naturally—God (called Papa) proceeds to teach Mack about the Trinity, and the suffering in life, and the ultimate plan of God.

Some readers can’t get past the “heresy” these characterizations represent to them. I’ll admit it wasn’t easy. Nevertheless, I came away from the reading with a new insight of significance. It is this: We will never quite understand the Trinity, because we cannot understand the Trinity. Mack marvels at the simple, beautiful, easy way the Three relate to each other. He can’t figure out who’s in charge; he’s always thought of God as being the Boss, but then that doesn’t seem to fit in this situation. So he asks about the chain of command.

God explains that there is no hierarchy because they are in a circle of relationship. Among themselves, they do not recognize the concept of a final authority. That is a problem only humans have; they are so damaged in their relationships that they cannot imagine—let alone function in—a situation where there is not someone in charge. He (She) goes on to say that once hierarchy has been established, rules have to be made to protect and administer it, hence laws and enforcers of law. People then end up with a system that destroys relationships rather than building them, and seldom experience any relationships without some expression of power. That is the human paradigm.

Mack objects that after all we’ve adapted pretty well to that system, and the Holy Spirit girl is quick to point out that he must not confuse adaptation with intention. Made in God’s image, humans were meant to be unencumbered by artificial structure, free to just “be” in their relationship with God and one another. That intention was spoiled by man’s choice to act independently of God. The first step to restoring God’s intention then, as much as we can on earth, is to find the unity with God that the Three have in themselves. Is this possible? Yes. Jesus prayed, “that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us . . .” (John 17:21)

Get the book. Read it if you can.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

MaryMartha
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