My theologian husband has taught me many things. One of my favorites has to do with free will. Did you know that there are times we do NOT have free will? And, that in some things our free will is limited?
The Theologian teaches that the top two situations in which we do not have free will are:
#1 Our Creation
#2 Having a need and longing for God
We didn’t choose to be created, but we were. We didn’t choose to have a need and longing for God, but we do. He knows He is what we need. For me, this proves God’s love for us and explains how we work. I know I am always trying to figure me out, so how great to have some basic truths to stand on!
First, God made me. Big topic, here I go…. We did not have free will in being Created. We did not think ourselves up nor cause ourselves to be alive. Most people in the world would generally agree on that. At the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia in the fall of 2015, when asked what God did before He created the world, Pope Francis said, “He loved.” He went on to explain that God decided that He wanted to show love by creating us; to share that love and to bring more and more people into it.
Love itself – God – was already complete when He decided to do this. He didn’t need to create us but He did, out of Love. Love expresses itself – shows itself. That’s just what it does; what it is. That is God and that is what He is like. We are part of how God wanted to express himself. God loves us and so He made us. He made us because He is Love and He knew it would be an incredible thing for us to exist with Him in that Love; being able to be loved exactly as we need to be loved. It sounds too perfect, too impossible. In Jeremiah 1:5 God says, “I knew you before I formed you.” He is the only one who knows us well enough to give us what we need.
And we do need!
I have tested all of this myself. God is the only friend who can want and know what is best for me and never guess wrong. Last fall I heard someone say the words, “God made me” and they caught my attention as though I hadn’t heard them before. I asked myself what that really meant. What did that look like? And in that instant God gave me a picture of my (and your) creation moment and showed me how His relationship with me started. He loved me and talked to me through the whole scene. (For more details on that, see “Made Me” – Words from Jesus).
Honestly, what a moment! God made me on purpose for a purpose. It’s true for me. It’s true for you. That’s what God’s like. We are so individually important to Him it is as if each one of us is His only creation.
We are each made “in His image” (Gen.1:27). Like a mirror, you and I are made to reflect/show what He’s like – His image – to each other. Think about that. You and I are created to be able to do that. Do we reflect Him or deflect Him? Even when we choose to deflect God, by leaning on something other than Him (“the apple”), He gave us Jesus and the Holy Spirit to make “reflecting Him” possible again. And again. Love doesn’t quit. That’s who God is and HE made YOU.
Keep looking for the blessing! Mary Kay.