Grandfather

I often think, as much as I hate to admit it, that I have a very wrong picture of God. You see, one of the ways I let the world in is letting parts of its definition of God creep into mine. He's this grandfatherly, Santa Claus-like figure sitting high up in heaven waiting on me to do things and then blessing or cursing them, not always for a good reason- not to mention the world is so big he's often doing other things and not even helping out with the chaos.

And while the world says this (although it's increasingly less shameful about not acknowledging a god at all), it seems pathetic.

God either exists or He doesn't. And if He exists where do we get His definition or parameters? Society and life have rules necessary to its existence (hello, constitution) so it's reasonable to conclude God-following must too.

But a big wonder of mine about the world is whether the few remaining people that even occasionally acknowledge there's a god believe in a little-g one that's really a figment of the imagination to keep the boogeyman away, to feel more confident, to get what we want, to push away the horror.

And about half the time these fleeting pleas of breath work (law of averages and all) and we've gotten so used to the feeling of chaos that while it's sucking away our lives it's an inevitability so c'est la vie. After all, god might make our lives harder if we don't throw up a prayer, right?

Wrong. He loves us more than we can possibly imagine. And He forgives us. He loves in spite of who we are and what we do. He created a world knowing He would have to slaughter His own child to save us, how far do you think He's willing to go to save you?

"Now these are the nations that the Lord left, to test Israel by them...They were for the testing of Israel, to know whether Israel would obey the commandments of the Lord, which He commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses."  Judges 3: 1a,4

This is not cruelty or trickery on the Lord's part. This is cleansing. And it's tough stuff. It's gut-wrenching and life-taking. It's the refining process where the Potter (God) shapes the clay (us, His children) in order for something better to emerge. 

He's not sitting atop the chaos wondering whether the Israelites will or won't obey. He's the author of life, in every detail but loving us enough to grow us to obey His commandments so that our lives may be fuller. The Israelites chose wrong most of the time, as they did just 2 verses later. But we don't have to find ourselves in slavery, we need only ask Him to be free and our powerful God will rescue us.