WEEK 3

Throughout our discussions in class this week, I began to have a new perception of God, which I was surprised I had not thought of before. On Wednesday, we touched on the "dust to divinity" concept and the fact that we are dependent on God to guide us through our struggles of the flesh. We delved a little deeper into questions of why God gave man dominion, why God favors us over all other beasts. Why did God create us? A question of this nature was proposed, and I was immediately struck with a strange answer--he was lonely, I thought. Now, this could be all wrong, but I had this feeling, partially because I have felt very lonely for the last week, struggling with my relationship with my boyfriend and feeling isolated from my friends. But the lonelier I get, sometimes, I feel like the closer my relationship is with God, in the Father sense--he is my Abba, and I just feel like a little child who needs her father to hold and comfort her. This connection is enhanced further by the fact that my parents divorced when I was in 1st grade and I hardly see my Dad but am deeply saddened to not have grown up with that figure in my life. When I am lonely, my Father makes me feel better. I just wonder, to be whatever God was in the universe or in nothingness, why would he bother? I think that God needs us, but he has given us free will, so that if we choose him, it will be truly special. That is why faith is such a challenge and such a mystery. If it was God-determined and given, it would be nothing special. It is the fact that we choose God over evil that makes our relationship with God so amazing. God did not just create puppets; God created free-willed people that could go in any direction they pleased. This is not to say that God does not lead us, but I do not think that God forces people to be one way or another.
Going back to the idea that God was lonely, I can't help but feel like we have some power to comfort God as well. Just as a father is deeply touched when his child displays great love for him, or depends on him for safety, comfort, and guidance, our Father must feel some sort of something. I don't have any idea what emotions are transferable, as God is God and we are merely humans, but we are made in God's image, which provides the capacity for understanding. Of course, God knows and understands human emotions through Jesus, and has felt them through Jesus. We just don't entirely understand God--but we do know that he feels for us--God's sympathy, even empathy as provided through God's experience in the flesh, may be what allows grace, our forgiveness.