Love

Love used to be a whole... something perfect. There was no enmity and there was no hate. A "perfect" creation, a "perfect" world, a "perfect" love. Look around now, think about everything that happened today, everything that happened this last week. What happened to this life? Yes, we see love. Very plainly sometimes. But it seems as if love is being choked out by hate, enmity, and death. There is no longer a "perfect" world. How can something that was created so beautifully turn to something so wretched, so ugly? If God is "good" how could his creation turn so far from its original beauty? Why is there death, why is there sadness, suffering? Why is there hate and "sin"? It seems as though people don't believe in God until something bad happens, usually something horrible. That's when people react. And usually when people react, instead of calling out to God they point fingers at God blaming Him for what happened. But God isn't the one to blame. He isn't the one who screwed our life. We had that covered on our own. Back in the garden when God gave us a perfect world He allowed the Devil to tempt us. He could have easily made the Devil leave us be. But maybe he wanted us to have a choice. Maybe he wanted us to choose Him, instead of just having to live with Him because there were no other options. He wasn't running a prison, was He? He let us live our life, and he wanted us to choose Him, He wanted us to choose to love Him. But we were selfish so we chose our lives and we chose to love and live for ourselves. When Satan showed up in the garden in the form of a snake he questioned God's authority, "Did God really say?" Once that question was out there, a seed of doubt was planted. And like any seed would do, it grew. It grew in Eve's heart and she chose to live for herself. She chose to turn from God and chose her own way of life, apart from  her Creator. When God created us in the beginning he entrusted us with His glory, we fell short. When we turned our backs to Him and chose life on our own, apart from God... that's when we fell short of His glory. When we disobeyed the Lord and chose our own walk of life on a path where he was not leading. When we made that decision, and yes, "we" chose! Not God, not the Devil... us. As hard as that is sometimes, we need to own our mistakes. Not so they can drag us down but so we can learn from them. We chose "sin" which separated us from God. God didn't bring hate, He didn't bring death and misery into this world. We did. When we made the choice to leave God's side, to leave His perfect Love and his protection. So... what happens next, if we're by sin separated from God is there any hope for such a hopeless people? Truth is, yes there is hope, but I'll have to write about that another day.