It Must Sadden God's Heart

I have been places where the events that were occurring were of such a joyous nature that before I knew it I was overtaken by the joy being expressed. I’m sure you have been in similar places. Presently, I am serving as a chaplain in a children’s hospital. The sights and sounds that I witness and hear on a daily basis truly overwhelm me to tears. I think to myself, as I try to hide my emotions from those around me, “you need to get a handle on this Al or they are going to think something is really wrong with you.” Even though I think such things I haven’t found a way to control my emotional responses to those joyful tender occurrences. Allow me to share an observance I witnessed just the other day.  

As I walked through the atrium on my way to get a cup of coffee one morning I observed a parent and their very sick child seated near the front entrance to the hospital. It was obvious that there was something very wrong with this child. This mother was tenderly caring for her daughter and due to the condition she suffered from it appeared as though she could not respond to her mother’s care in a way that to me would seem normal, whatever normal is. The response the child did or did not give did not detour the mother from caring for her child. I paused a moment to simply watch this dedicated mother tenderly love and care for her very needy child. Then the thought occurred to me to ask myself, “where does such love come from?”

Now its easy to give the pat answer that this love comes from God, and I believe it does, but to watch such love being demonstrated before my very eyes had a sobering affect. I believe that we are all God’s children. One of my greatest joys is to reassure someone that they are loved by their and our heavenly Father. As a matter of fact, I tell them, you wouldn’t be present on this planet unless God’s love placed you here to begin with. This is the process of becoming aware of our genesis or our beginning. We began in Love. We are a product of Love. It is our function to reflect the Love from which we are sourced. To wake to this reality is why we are here!

I have entitled this reflection, “It must sadden God’s heart.” The contrasting reality to our being created in Love often surfaces in our ability to abuse and mistreat one another. We have all heard stories of horrendous crimes against humanity. Isn’t it interesting and sad that crimes against humanity comes from humanity? I’m reminded of the passage in Psalm 133:1 that says, “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers and sisters to live in harmony.” I recall an encounter that I observed once where a couple of siblings were in conflict with one another. The conflict was so pronounced that when it finally came to a head the words, “go to hell!” was expressed from one to the other. I don’t know what your definition of hell is and I’m not sure what mine is either these days but what comes to mind is a frame of reference that has for its reality a "turning away" from Love!

If you had been the parent of the two siblings that ended their argument with an expression that was absent of Love would you have discarded the one that made such an expression? Would you have sided with the sibling for and to whom the expression was made? Would you cease to love them because of such an argument? What if that argument drove a wedge between them where they no longer communicated with each other? Would you seek to aid their predicament in being the go between seeking to reconcile them back together? Would you do that with force or with understanding?

These are difficult questions to answer but I believe this was what God sought to remedy in His only begotten knowing that His creation was suffering by sin’s damaging effects and we could not remedy our own predicament. The amazing fact about all of this is that we know Love when we experience it demonstrated before us. We may run from it for a season but I believe we know it because Love knows us by name. Just like that mother taking care of a very sick child. The child’s illness did not reduce her mother’s love in the least. If anything, the child’s illness caused love's demonstration to be greatly expanded. My guess is that God in Christ by the Power of the Holy Spirit tenderly and lovingly draws each of us to a place of awareness so we can once again enjoy the fellowship of our Source!