In His Image/free will

The last re-post, I think...the short version is still pretty long...

Little people given to us...created as we were, in the image of God. Created with a free will. Part of you but not. If you expected someone to obey you, would you create him/her with a free will? If you were really a control freak wouldn't you create an autonomaton? Yes, He wants us to obey Him. Yes, He made us with free wills. He made us a part of Him but not. A mystery, but not a mystery: God is God and we're not but He created us in His image.

Job is one of my favorite Bible characters not because he suffered but because God trusted Job. He kept giving Satan a little more access and a little more because God was bragging on Job. God let things get hard for Job because God had faith in him. He tells us, teaches us, trains us, and then He lets us make choices that inevitably have consequences. I'll venture to say He has faith in us. We were made in His image. Ultimately He works all things together for good for those who love Him...the end of the matter is better than the beginning. . . His love is everlasting...

Pretty amazing that God entrusted His own son to human parents. Pretty amazing that He gives us children to love, nurture, and train. He entrusts a whole generation to the generation before. But each person is created God shaped. The best of human parenting will never fill that space. You can build "to spec" the best way you know how. You can pray for wisdom and intercede. You can call on the Lord who is near when you blow it (some of which is inevitable, by the way) but when it's all done only God Himself can come and fill that place that's meant for Him. Anything else would be idolatry. And by nature God is faithful...

So we have these little free will plants made in the image of God to train and prune and tend. If you're into the time and work of meticulous gardening or if you depend on your garden for food it will look a whole lot different than if you're going for the wild look. Being more a naturalist than a gardener, I've always wondered: if the vinedresser prunes the branches that bear fruit and cuts off the branches that don't bear fruit, how does the thing grow? There are wild grape vines on the fence. Somebody cuts them them to the ground every year. Believe me, they grow!

Train up a child in the way he should go and when he's old he won't depart from it...Children obey your parents in the Lord for this is right (the first commandment with a promise) so things will go well with you, so you'll live a long time in the land God gives you...God faithfully watches over His Word to perform it. . .It endures forever across generations, He doesn't change...He gives us promises, words to obey, words for comfort and encouragement, words of warning, stories, proverbs, songs, teaching (a Father's words) and His example...

He also made each of us unique, planted us in unique families, in unique communities, in a specific time and place and He gives us the freedom to chose. He's pretty amazing... and He made us in His image.

(c) 2005 Margie Hillenbrand