THIS BIBLE QUESTION caught me off guard.
I invited readers to tell me what one question they would ask God if they got the chance.
Here’s the question from Brenda Savidge (who gets a free book for her trouble; Brenda, email me):
Since God knows everything, and knew what Adam and Eve would do in the garden, was it worth creating us.
What does it sound like?
- “God saw that human evil was out of control….God was sorry that he had made the human race in the first place.” (Genesis 6:6)
That’s an anonymous writer quoting God just before The Flood wiped out the entire human race except for the family of Noah—a righteous man who later “got drunk and passed out, naked in his tent.” (Genesis 6:21)
So did God regret sparing Noah?
Most Christians, I suspect, read those Bible stories like a history book. Others, not so much. They speculate that the unknown writer of Genesis knew about a famous flood from long ago and he presumed God did it—since God controls everything.
In which case, as the theory goes, the writer may have gotten God wrong. God may have had nothing to do with the Flood.
I don’t know if God the Father regrets creating his children, whether they are the rebellious ones or not.
Here’s what I do know.
In my lifetime, I’ve done some stupid stuff. I’d tell you more, but I’m not quite that stupid.
In spite of it all, Mom and Dad loved me.
They have loved each of their five kids, including the one who went to prison. Especially the one who went to prison. They were his most faithful resource for the stuff of life that he needed most—encouragement, assurance, cash.
Mom and Dad helped us all in those ways.
I have grown kids now. I confess there were moments when I asked God what in the heck he thought he was doing putting them in my space.
(Kids, if you’re reading this, they were only fleeting moments. And you thought the same thing about me.)
Like me, my kids have done stupid things. Far as I can tell, nothing as stupid or as embarrassing as some of the things I’ve done. Idiot stuff so embarrassing that when my kids felt ashamed about something they did, I couldn’t manage to console them by telling them what I had done that was so much worse. It was just too embarrassing.
There are some pictures from our past that don’t belong in the present.
My kids came to me wired. Live wires, both. No wonder they shocked me time and again.
They cost me money, too. Not to mention stomach lining.
Okay, I mentioned it. Sorry.
Do I regret creating them? Are they worth the price I’ve paid?
I would not want to imagine my life without them. They are the best thing to come of me.
I would give away the millions of words I’ve written if it would keep them on this planet one day longer.
God gave away more.
“He gave his only Son, so that everyone who has faith in him will have eternal life.” (John 3:16)
God created us to live forever, Jesus said.
I’m inclined to believe Jesus.
God isn’t sorry he created us, I’m fairly sure. He’s sorry when we do stupid stuff and wander into danger zones.
But God is the living spirit of grace.
He accepts us where we are. He refuses to leave us there.
“The Lord helps the fallen
and lifts those bent beneath their loads.” (Psalm 145:14)
If God really believes that we aren’t worth the trouble, he’s less of a father than I am.
I’m betting he’s the best Father of all.
Amen! God is the Ultimate and Epihany of Grace, why then do families who have people who are differently abled not realize that His grace extends to them to be the parents these children need as well as the church to be the Grace to embrace families and people who are differently able?