It always amazes me that some people seem to understand God so well. It seemed to me they have understood his love, his kindness, his grace and mercy. Yet they also understood his anger and his justice.
So what was I missing, I wondered. This was a question I posed to myself. I too wanted to know God and to be able to understand him in as much as a mere mortal can understand God.
One day it struck me while reading the Word of God….. that God is our father…..Something that I had read so many times in the Bible, yet some how its full meaning just passed me by. Now you might wonder what is so great about that. This is known to every Christian. But on that day I understood that in a whole new way.
As a parent I know that how much ever I might want good things for my children, I cannot make it all happen without them also wanting to do it. I cannot go and study for my children and get great marks. I cannot keep out of trouble for them and though I can see the pitfalls and want my children to avoid it, I can’t do it for them. They have to do it for themselves. They have to take their decision and face the consequences for their actions, both good and bad.
That is when I understood why God will not stop me from doing something wrong because he had given us a free will and though he does not want us to get hurt by the mistakes we make, he is not going to stand in the way of our free will.
So he can feel sad when we go our own way just as when Jesus felt sorry for the rich young man who was not able to give up his wealth to follow Jesus, but Jesus did not stop the young man. He will though keep waiting for you to return when you are broken and weary like the father who waited for his prodigal son.
Now whenever I cannot fathom God and his ways, I think of what I would do or think as a parent or what my parents would do or think and in a small way I understand God and his relationship with us. I understand why my parents could not stop my little hurts when I fell down and I understand how God though he wants to prevent every hurt in our lives, he still will not come in the way of our free will.
But there are always signs__ signs which tell us which way to go. Often we either brush aside the signs or just don’t want to know the Will of God.
So now I feel I understand God just a little bit better, though we as human beings with our limited minds and limited perspectives do not have the capacity to understand God who is infinite. I have an interesting simile, man trying to understand God is just like an ant trying to understand man and his ways. Though we do have an advantage, we were created in the image of God, unlike the ant, which is so much different from a human being.
But whenever I am at a loss to understand God’s ways, I try to understand him as a father and though I can’t see the whole sense of it in the beginning, I remind myself that he wants the best for me. After all it is written, “All things happen for good to them who love the Lord.” So I believe even when things are difficult to fathom and when the going is tough that God is my father and he wants what is good for me, even though I cannot see it just yet.
I also remember Jesus’ promise, “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light”, so I know that even in difficult times it is still easier than under any other circumstances. Why then is it so difficult to trust in God and give our lives to God, ever thought about that? And why do so many people despite knowing the message of Christ still find it difficult to commit their lives to Jesus. I think it is because we do not want to give up on our free will. We are scared that if we commit our lives to Jesus, he will ask us for something which will be too difficult to follow and that we will not be able to make our own decisions.
I learnt the hard way that our decisions are so wrong because we take our decisions with the things which we know in the present but God directs us with our whole lives in perspective and he knows what will be good for us despite it not looking quite so interesting in the present.
But one needs to build a relationship with God where trust grows over a period of time. We need to trust God and what he is doing in our lives but that takes time and discipline. Both come with perseverance. But hey its not easy. Interesting, Jesus never said it would be easy, all he said is that my yoke is easy……easier than someone else’s yoke, like the yoke of Satan. He also said his burden is light, lighter than Satan, definitely.
So walk with God, knowing that he is working in our lives with the vision that only He can have. So put your lives in his hands and keep on praying for wisdom and courage.
