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Luke 8: 25 “Where is your faith?” he asked his
disciples. (NIV)
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God’s strength is perfected in man’s weakness. That is a lesson our eyes will never learn.* |
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The part of Jesus that was human surely had moments of
discouragement when he looked at the raw material he had to work with. Would it
have been worse if his disciples were deliberately
obtuse than if they were just naturally
dense? What about his followers today? How often do we go along on our merry,
misinformed way?
I have always pictured God shaking his head in despair as we
stumble around in our attempts to fulfill his commission to go into all the
world. But just maybe that’s not his attitude at all. He knew when he left the
world in our human hands that we were weak and shallow and sinful. Yes, we are
all he has to work with but that was his plan – not just something he has
resigned himself to live with. His plan.
I don’t claim to know God’s actual attitude. Maybe he
doesn’t have one. But he is love so
perhaps that’s all he sees when he looks at us. Not failure. Not indifference.
Does that make him an indulgent Father? Perhaps. Patient? Yes, the Old
Testament abounds with examples of his patience. But not limitless patience.
In his sermon in Athens, Paul said, “For he has set a day
when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed.” (Acts
17: 31) For us who are his followers, made righteous through the blood of this
man God has appointed, justice is nothing to fear. God will not see that we are
inept, inadequate, faithless and defiant. He will see nothing but love.
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The reasons why God created the world and placed human beings in its midst lie deep within the mystery of God’s being and are beyond human comprehension.* |
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