vast

So much.  Its hard, free, binding, unexpected, unpredictable, painful, elating; life is huge.  And to think that every soul that walks this vibrant ball hanging upon nothing amid a very literal sterility, every one was purposely placed here to experience this confoundingly astonishing gift of the Great Origin, the mind of God.  Good, bad, horror, euphoria, base, and the lofty:  its all allowed or gifted from the Eternal Father.

My heart is full, yet my mind cannot conceive it.  Perhaps that is what the writer meant when he wrote, "God has placed eternity in our hearts."  Just as we exist in the physical and cannot grasp the vast expanses of the universe-that we can see, so we exist spiritually and cannot fathom our place in this ontological epiphany-that is, without getting in touch with the part of us He made in His Image and Likeness.

Indeed, it is an utter fool who says, "there is no God."  In my years, I have been that fool.  I have, in my baseness, entertained this evil and have acted upon it.  More than unwise, more than mistaken, the truth of it - angry at God and blasphemous to the point that, were I created an angel, I would have to be counted among the eternally damned.  When we continually close our minds and hearts off to the Great Origin, to the Divine Order in our experience, we point our souls toward damnation, regardless of how charmed our lives may seem to others on this planet.  And though we were created "a little lower than the angels," we are gifted the ascendency to realize our foolishness, turn from it, and choose to pursue the true and pure idea the Great Origin purposed in us.

God desires us to interface with Him, to ask those tough questions that keep us from walking with Him.  "If God is truly good, how could He allow such terrible evil to happen?" is a question most often raised.  I have asked this question going through many experiences and in many states of emotion.  The answer is in the definition of "good."  In the midst of suffering we forget that choice is inherent in that definition.  "That which is pleasing or valuable or useful, moral excellence or admirableness," or "good" cannot happen without our making the choice to be or to do so.  It is obvious in the natural order.  God has defined Himself as "good" altogether, completely absolutely, unequivocally.  God is good.  It describes Him:  He always makes a choice for what is pleasing, valuable, and useful.  He chooses good because He is good.  His essence is making the pleasing, valuable, useful, and admirable choice...  everytime. 

He made the angels and, because He is good, gave them choice.  He fashioned human kind and gave them choice.  The consequences of choices will always be played out.  But choosing the thing that is "good" will always yield like consequences.  There could no good exist without choice.  God allows evil because He is good.  And because He is also righteous and just, He allows those choices to bear their own fruit.  There is no paradox here, but something exponentially wonderful!

The Eternal Father knew us before we were concieved (Psalm 139), knew His purpose for each one of us, and knew the choices we would make.  He created the myriad of processes, our life experiences, that were meant to bring us to Him, but only if we choose.  From the human perspective, the utter miracle beyond merely being, is that the Divine, knowing our evil before we had committed it, solved that problem.  The miracle is God reaching for us (while we were yet sinners), coming after us (while we were yet sinners), moving toward us (while we were yet sinners), even touching us, our souls (while we were yet sinners)!  If we so choose we can  have the full end of our faith now, even the salvation of our souls (1 Peter 1.9)!  And that is wonderful.  But the miracle of that could never be except that the Originator's heart was FOR us, for our good!

The answer to those mockers, those fools, who say, "Where is this God, and why doesn't He do this or that..." is from God's heart-an answer of grace and mercy:  "The Lord is not slow in keeping His word, as He seems to some, but He is waiting in mercy for you, not desiring the destruction of any, but that all men may be turned from their evil ways."  While the foolish mockers mock, the Eternal Father is waiting...  for them...  waiting... waiting...  even knowing the final outcome, He still waits for us.

Life is hard.  God's love is invincible.  Life is baffling.  He IS clarity.  Life is immense.  God's purpose is eternally more vast.


And let us have knowledge.  Let us go after the knowlede of the Lord; His going out is certain as the dawn, His decisions go out like the light; He will come to us like the rain, like the spring rain watering the earth.  Hosea 6.3