God's Love for a God of Love

In the beginning, the elohim created skies and earth.

Welcome back.  

An argument could be made that in all the Bible there is no book more profound than Job.  

The first one or two times I attempted to read Job, I drove through the opening heavenly host scene and the story of Job's life, and then ran out of gas.  

My all time favorite professor, Dr. Weisbaker, a man who presented himself professionally as an atheist to his students yet possessed a deep, tested, and personal devotion told me once that a lot of people only love God for what they can get out of the relationship.

They love God as long as there is a promise of an everlasting and blissful afterlife. Take that away and many would stop loving God.

Unlike Job, who said, "Though he slay me, I will trust him."

Dr. Weisbaker loved to lower his head ever so slightly so he could present his eyes unobscured by his spectacles.  That was a sign that something important would follow.  

And he said, "Should we not love God for being God and for no other reason?"

Think about that.

I like to say I will not cheat on my wife because I love her so much, and loving her, I cannot bear the thought of doing injury to her.

I would not want that on my conscience anytime, during those times my regrets come marching past my IMAX double 3D memory screen.

I have enough hurts I have inflicted on people.

Surely, upon God I have done the same every time I hurt others whether out of meanness, loss of temper, or retaliation.  I can say in my defense I never struck another person not wearing shoulder pads except once in 8th grade.

But still in my heart I have hated and wished destruction.  I have scorned and wished comeuppance.

Each time, I have hurt this God of love whom I love.

Surely, I must love God as God loves. So when I read that God drowned every single man, woman, child, fetus, and animal except a few on a boat held together with tar, I know it is a story about the universal experience of salvation for those blessed few who survive life's terrible throes, not about a deed done by my God of love.

I trust that patient, never wanting its own way, hoping always love.  That love works over time and space.  

One reason why I hope so gladly for everlasting life is because it will take an eternity for God to nurture me to be as loving as God is.

 Job goes on to say, "I will question him to his face."

We must all question God.  Doubting, wondering, and questioning are essential elements to any relationship. 

Without question, I question.  I read Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins' books.  I marvel at how interesting and profound their objections to faith are.  

I go to God and complain about the lack of scientific evidence, as if I am a little boy with a visible friend who hides when others come into the room, and I sometimes feel stupid.

I tell God that too and repose in the great silence.

As movie Forrest Gump would say, "I found that loving God comes quite naturally to me."  

It really does and always has.  

A former classmate of mine posted on FaceBook recently Pastor Rick Warren's comment about his son's suicide.  He said that he does not question his faith, but he does question God's plan.

Indeed.

My friend, like all of us who love God, knows no book, storm, bomb, or disease that may terminate a mortal life will terminate our love.  

That, I sense, is eternal and will never end.

Yet that is not why I love God.

Blessings...