What an amazing God we have! It’s Gospels like today’s that remind me of how “human” I am and how different God is from us.
“I am the good shepherd,
John 10:11-16
and I know mine and mine know me,
just as the Father knows me and I know the Father;
and I will lay down my life for the sheep.
I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold.
These also I must lead, and they will hear my voice,
and there will be one flock, one shepherd.”
I mean, if I was all-powerful, I’m certain I would not have:
- Chose to create creatures like myself.
- Empowered them to make critical discussions about my creation.
- Treated them like myself, including to the point of making equal deals (covenants) with them.
- Sent myself to suffer and die for these creatures after they repeatedly failed to stay good on their promise.
The truly radical thing is that God, who is above time, knew all of this would happen and did it anyway. He could have hit the undo button at any point and wiped it away. But He didn’t (OK except may the flood, that was like a partial undo).
The refusal to hit the undo button on creation overall is not it. He intentionally created each and every one of us, knowing every single mistake that we were going to create. And He allowed us to live and have free will anyway.
I’m not holding my breath that I will ever truly love as God loves, to be willing to lay down my life for any fellow sheep.
I would say it’s not humanly possibly, but Mary’s great love demonstrates otherwise.
Success would be to consider any human and immediately be filled with love for them, including humans who have committed egregious atrocities. I can barely get past internet trolls 👀. But I’ll keep praying for it anyway!
Let us pray: God, take my heart of stone and create in me a clean heart, a heart that loves like Yours.