How I Imagine It

God's heart is full of love, love that bubbles over and craves release, love that chuckles and sings and dances to its own rhythm. That love isn't just something He carries around; it's who He is, woven inseparably into every fiber and thread of His being. 

 

 

He had an ultimate goal in mind when He began this story, giving it a big-picture ending designed to please His heart, giving Himself more to love and more to love Him back. The story I'm referring to, of course, is the story of humanity and of this earth. And the end of the story isn't an ending at all!

We must always remember that this world and our lives are His story, not ours. My life doesn't belong to me and your life doesn't belong to you. We didn't start the story and we don't own the story. At the most, we are somewhat free-lance characters in His story, a story He is writing to please Himself.

• To those who become true followers of Jesus Christ, the Messiah of God, He is demonstrating His mercy and grace. He is demonstrating His ability to totally cleanse and transform people that were once deeply broken, completely unfit to be in His presence.

• To those who reject Jesus and His transformation, He will have no choice but to demonstrate His holy separation from people that -- through their choices -- remain unfit to be in His presence.

Strict justice and total mercy are mutually exclusive concepts. Neither has room for the other. But God has made the impossible possible. This makes me think of Psalm 85:10:

Mercy and truth have met together; Righteousness and peace have kissed. 

In that verse, the Psalmist presents opposing principles that cannot co-exist. 

• On the one hand, God's separation from spiritual, moral corruption is required; That separation fully excludes mercy and peace between holy God and fallen man. 
• On the other hand, in the Lord Jesus, the Messiah, Lamb of God, and Perfect Sacrifice, righteous judgement is satisfied so that man may receive mercy and peace with God. 

 In Jesus, righteousness and truth have a group hug with mercy and peace.

These are things that the Angels want to look into (1 Peter 1:12), demonstrating at least part of His overall motivation: He wants to be known and loved more than He is already known and loved, even by the Angels. He wants to share Himself through that knowing. Rather than give all living things a lecture about Mercy, Grace, and Holy Judgement, He gives a living demonstration of those qualities, putting them on open display -- putting Himself on open display.

He creates, then reveals Himself to His creation. He grows relationships and indulges His extravagant love through the companionship of someone (many someones!) to love Him back. I'm using very inadequate human terms, but it's the best I can do.

We must never forget that this is His story, one He writes to indulge His heart of love. In His story, He chooses to share a part of Himself with the true followers of Jesus. It's a special relationship that only Sons and Daughters can have with Him. The angels and the other beings around the Throne are what they are, unique and wonderful in their own way, but they're not Sons and Daughters.

No one on this side of the veil fully understands what being a Son or Daughter involves and so none of us can fully define it. But this I believe: though He shares Himself with angels in many ways that overlap with how He shares Himself with us, there are big differences, too, because we aren't angels and angels aren't Sons and Daughters in the sense that we are.

He has lived for a long time with incredible aggravation from the fallen angels and from fallen humanity. If I were in His shoes, I'd be tempted to simply wipe everything away -- all of it -- and start over. I might not even replace it, choosing to simply enjoy the peace and quiet. Good thing I'm not God.

So we have to ask: What's driving God, pushing Him forward through the aggravation and horrible filth that so heavily contaminates His story? Here's what I think and what I believe Scripture shows. 

He has all of this love bubbling up inside of Him, pushing the lid off the soup pot. He wants to express it, to pour it out, to indulge Himself in pouring it out, to wallow in it, and in doing so to be known and loved in return. That's why He made us, and it's that goal for which He's transforming us. That's His anticipated reward, and that's why He temporarily puts up with all that is so deeply fallen and rotten.

The season and place of evil will end at the time of His choosing, which will be soon, I hope. And then His story will be fully told: He is creating love and relationship unlike any He has made before. He sees the "end game" and is quite happy about it, indeed.

And that, my friend, is how I imagine it.