What if…
So God necessarily hides. He stays out of plain view. He is available, but only to those who really seek Him. Not everyone is invited up the holy mountain. Only Moses got to go up. And the people could hardly look at his veiled face in glory.
God does things on His terms, world religions can agree on this. He needn’t apologize for this power. If we define God as all-knowing, then of course He would know better. What seems disparate in His dominion, then, is only according to our limited view.
It may sound like God is who He is, take it or leave it. Given the option, most people today leave it. If “God” is not who they imagine He should be, they are not interested. God is not God, so it goes, unless He thinks and acts an awful lot like me. :-)
Yet we can’t shake certain pre-installed ideas about God. We know God must be powerful, transcending the typical mortal dilemmas we face. But, if being honest, we also long for a God who cares about the universe and stops at nothing to fix it.
Though we get tripped up about the identity of God, we can all agree it would be great if God were both powerful AND good. We can agree it would be incredible to have a God who was incarnate love [enfleshed] that actually enjoyed being with us.
Having a God committed to relationship with us, outside our ability to ethically perform, sounds too good to be true. Could it actually be possible that the God of the universe, the Lord and Giver of all life, is seriously concerned about me personally?
Sounds too simple, I mean…really.
It sounds incredible but far too convenient for us creatures to imagine the Creator and Sustainer of life planning around us. However potentially self-serving, though, what if, just maybe, it’s true? What if such good news were actually possible?
This is the intersection all of humanity must walk across. We must consider the possibility that the world we most desire is possible. Not by mere human engineering and will, but through the supernatural will of a benevolent God desiring it happens.
It’s our wildest dream. Perhaps our truest human aim — a world of real peace. Righteousness. Honesty. Goodness. Resolve. A place where inside and out people are free AND good. A time where greed and corruption are fully consummated by love.
We can imagine it. But can we believe it possible? Can we accept that God is actually orchestrating such an outcome and invites our participation? Can we trust that behind the veiled, but good and perfect, will of God, we will get there, however broken now?
This is the fundamental hope of faith. We are meant for more. Our meager experience of grace now is but a foretaste of what may come. Yet it is real. It IS actually a taste! Imagine the good pleasures that will come once through that gate.
