God loves everyone, right? Red, yellow, black & white. Rich, poor, sick & healthy. Presidents, kings, dictators & terrorists. Prostitutes, rapists, murderers & child molesters. Oh wait, that's uncomfortable.
Some things in life we have no control over, like ethnic background or royal bloodlines. Some things we claim to have no control over. And sometimes, we just make bad decisions. It's this last category that I'm addressing today.
God hand-crafts every baby. The Bible says He "knits" them together in their mother's womb. As a mom myself, this is an absolutely beautiful truth. I love being pregnant for many reasons, but one is knowing that God is literally, physically working His art in my body. So mysterious and incomprehensible.
When I think about my children, I feel overwhelming, unexplainable love. Even my newborn. They do nothing to earn my love, and could do nothing to squirm out of its grasp. I simply love them because they're mine. They mess up. They hurt each other. They even hurt my heart sometimes. But on the days when I'm most irritated with them, my passion for them is no less than when they wrap their tiny arms around my neck and whisper "I love you Momma."
When I consider that analogy, it's easy for me to make the connection with God's feelings toward us. Actually accepting it is still difficult, but I'm better able to sort the intellectual knowledge of His unfading love.
He loves me. He loves all of us. We're all His.
But what about Adolph Hitler or Osama Bin Laden? There are people we naturally hate. Surely God has left a clause in there that if someone is "bad" enough, they're worthy of death, hell, and torture more than I. He couldn't have "knitted" them in their mother's womb. God has hated "those kinds of people" their whole lives, right?
What a contradiction to wrestle with.
Think once about Osama as God's created being. He crafted him with the same loving care that He did you and me. With excitement for the new life and hopes of one more human friend to share relationship with.
Think of the sadness the had to have wrenched God's heart as He watched His creation take turn after turn in the wrong direction. He watched him take the free will he was granted to hurt and kill others. I cannot begin to imagine the pain He deals with on a "daily," continual basis. I'd rather not think about it, to be honest.
The hard part is that we don't understand "bad" in the same way God does.
Because I've never stabbed someone in the heart and taken their life, it feels like I'm better than an imprisoned murderer. But He says in 1 John 3:15, "Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer." I personally know a child molester, and the child he molested. And I can tell you that until I was able to come to terms with real forgiveness, "hate" wasn't a strong enough word for my emotions toward him.
So the whole "I'm a pretty good person" thing? Yeah, that's out.
God's standard is perfection. One thing wrong equals failure. We all hit that before we could even talk. I heard it put this way once. In school, anything below a 70% gaves you an "F." So if you got a 69%, you failed. If you got a 69% and I got a 39%, would your F be any better than my F? Of course not. WE'RE BOTH FAILING. It doesn't matter that you're failing "less" than I'm failing.
We were invited to join a champagne/sparking juice "Osama is dead" celebration this evening. I thought that was an awesome, fun idea. But this morning, I was presented with this verse, posted by a Facebook friend:
Ezekiel 33:11
"As I live, declares the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live."
It's sobering enough to jolt me from my selfish place of small understanding and force me to see people just a little more like God might. I thought I'd send the challenge your way too :)
Well said!
ReplyDeleteSo...will you go to the celebration?
ReplyDeleteWe actually have a company dinner tonight. But I would probably go anyway. It could be interesting conversation :)
ReplyDeleteI like this one a lot! We could use this post and the meaning into it in a lot of other circumstances as well.
ReplyDeleteWell said! I feel the same way--I am glad on the part of the families that lost loved ones that they now have some closure; but I don't celebrate the death of a soul that was lost to God.
ReplyDeleteBeautifully put Laura. I know I myself had very mixed feelings about the whole thing and although felt some justice for the families immediately affected by his evil ways, I also felt uncomfortable watching Heraldo deliver the news like it was glad tidings. I just wasn't really sure how to react. Your post puts it very plainly. Good thoughts. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteChris Zalusky
Thank you, Laura. Very neat stuff.
ReplyDeleteI was reading an article this morning about this. And it simply outlined the fact that we go through emotions somewhat based on what and how the media feeds us. The news was presented as a joyful, exciting thing, and we all latched onto that. At least I know I did. I had to actually use my brain and heart together to realize what this news really meant.
ReplyDeleteThis is a topic I used to have a problem dealing with, sort of. I never thought of it in terms of God liking me better, instead I just felt that I was a better person. That was still wrong, and now that I am older I can sort of discern that better. Under God's ruler, none of us measure up. Grace is what we can rely on, not anything we will ever do. I personally did not feel any happy feeling over the fact that we finally "got our man"; it leaves a void in me to see the people that are rejoicing in the intentional destruction of a life, bad or not. It says a lot for the state of the world. Do not confuse this with the fact that I feel he deserved to be brought to face his actions, I just don't think a party is in order.
ReplyDelete