Religion? No. It’s Relationships.
I will try to answer all problems you have with Christianity here by comparing them to relationships between you and you future family. After all, I said that Christianity was about relationships ie: between Creator and creation, God and man etc. And family is something I hope we can all relate to.
First up...
Grace
So let’s say you are a father with lots of children. And as a responsible father you love your children, because after all they were made from a part of you. However, your children are rebels. You love them. But they don’t love you back. No matter what you do, you drive them around, you provide them food, they always manage to do something to hurt you. The saddest thing is, the one you love most, your first-born, runs away from your house because he/she thinks you’re boring. You’re left with children in your house, they’re bad but they choose to stay in your home. You want the one you love most to return to you, but basically they’ve left home for good and don’t want you in their life anymore. They choose to live without you. Nothing you can do about that. Oh by the way, they’ve taken some of your possessions as well your youngest child with them. You’ll never see them again. I’m sure they’re having a great time, by themselves without you. How do you feel? There’s nothing you can do to make them change their mind. They’ve decided what’s best for themselves, without asking your permission even though you thought you loved them to the best you could. They say you’re old fashioned.
What about the ones that do stay in your house? Ok, they’re not perfect, not your favourite children, not too good at school, didn’t inherent your good looks but they are still your children, and you love them as your children. They’ve chose to stay behind with you at home, lazy children, can’t afford a job to move out. Things don’t change. They are your children.
When you die. Who cares? The children that moved out, and had fun by themselves, without you? Or the ones that stayed at home. You provided everything for them. They don’t have anyone to look after them now like you did. Of course they miss you. They’ll realise that you did you best to care for them even though they weren’t the best children. They’re crying for you to come back, and promise you that they’ll make sure you know that they appreciate you. They say sorry. They say thank you for what you’ve done. But it’s too late.
Now at this point, all your children see a vision of you in their dreams as though you were back with them in person. Which of your children are happy to see you? Who misses you the most? Who wants you back and never wish they have to let go of you again? But some have forgotten who you are. They don’t want to live in the past anymore.
But say you didn’t die you had a heart attack. You’re in hospital. Who visits you? Who doesn’t care at all about you? When you recover, they realise what you meant to them as a father. They want you back. They finally return your love. That is a real relationship. But there’s a broken relationship; the children who chose to leave home. It doesn’t mean that you don’t love them still. You still do, but they don’t have a heart for you at all. No matter how much those two of your children love each other, they’re happy without you. You have no choice but to leave them in peace. You know they do everything that you would wish them to do for you, like take you to concerts, overseas trips and the like, but the problem is they do all that for their own enjoyment without you. They don’t acknowledge you as their father. They’re ashamed to take you because they say you’re old fashioned. You can imagine that they can only feel the same as you if they have do have children and their children treat them the same way as they treated you. But you know that they’re not the type to settle down. They’ll never know how you feel. You can only look at it in sadness. They’ve rejected you. They don’t need you at all. The creation has happily rejected the suffering Creator. You recover from the heart attack and return home to your children who now really do understand your care and love and return it back. They treasure you in their hearts. That’s enough to put a smile on your face. Your love for your children is grace. They didn’t deserve it. All of them weren’t perfect children, and all have caused you hurt at some stage. But how rewarding is it to see that grace and love returned.
You can see how what God wants is for His creation to love Him. They same way you would want your children to love you. No matter how good people are to each other, no matter how much your children love to spend time with each other, if they choose to reject you, there’s nothing you can do except love them in the hope that they will return it. Some day. It’s not guaranteed. And you wait for them because you love them. Some will. Some won’t. But you can’t wait forever; some children die before their parents do. And all along you just wanted for your children to know that you loved them. But in vain. They chose to live a life without you. Creation without the creator. Creation rejects the Creator and there’s nothing He can do but to show love in the hope that they might see how much they were loved despite what they did and return it one day. Except here, God is the source of love, same with you being a parent. But there are no other parents out there to give love. And only in the presence of God is there love. And when you are fully removed from His presence you will not be able to find love because God is love. Christians who truly know the love of God really treasure it and are selfless in sharing it. They have a love for all people because they see love through God's eyes and they have personally experienced what the love of God can do.
Hope this analogy clears what my talk was about.
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God bless you!
And hope to talk to you soon man,
Nathaniel
.....and yes love and grace defies logic. That's why its so hard for the rational mind to understand it sometimes. It's not what we deserve but hey, our hearts can feel it. Unless its cold....
..oh forgot to mention the mother. You love your wife, and your wife loves you. Ideally, you guys love each other so much it's a perfect match! Unity in marriage. United in love for your children. She feels the same way as you do, she understands, she's your soulmate, she was there with you in the beginning, before you had all this trouble with your children, at least your heart attack made some of your children realise how much you meant to them...
..you can also see that if it's only through the children's eyes, it's a different perspective. Especially the ones that left home, they don't feel that anythings wrong. We're the same, we look at people and say they're good by our own standards. Only through the father's eyes and heart can you see that they are not good children. They can love each other how ever the like but they don't love you the parent...
...Also shows how everyone can associate with love. Not everyone is born with rational thinking and some people have develop it better than others. We were made to love because we were created out of love whether it be out of wedlock, or God as creator. Love can overcome rational thinking. Love is from God. Rational thinking is from man. We constantly struggle between the two. Emotional bias for example. And as the rational brain develops the more we rely on our own ability, the more we are resistant to the love and grace from others because we think we are better than others. We don't need them because we have a bigger brain. Born to be proud and selfish. Just like the children who've ran away; they think they know the whole world and what's best for them. We know the reality. Love is the opposite. Selfless, humble, hm... if only there was perfect love, the world would be a much better place. Heaven perhaps? Rational thinking gets in the way of love. It defies logic to receive something you don't deserve. As I mentioned in my note, God doesn't care about logic or rules; it's about love and relationships. This will always be a part of God's love and superior wisdom. And it is powerful to all those who have experienced it. God's love is eternal. This is the relationship between and Christians and God. That's why you hear 'Heavenly Father' and 'God's children' in the bible. It's God's family..
..in light of this love, please reread the comments I gave to your note...
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Next.....
Genesis and the start of creation in terms of relationships. The 'fairy tale' has meaning and makes perfect sense with God's desire to restore the relationship between Himself and His creation. Also explains why the world is so stuffed up.
..One very important thing to add. When your wife first gives birth to your child, are you happy? How long will that happiness last? At the start they might obey your every word because thats all they know. You teach them names of objects and colours and they repeat what you say. It's good that they listen to you. It's a good relationship, you show them love by teaching them and the return it by obeying you. It's perfect really. But no child is perfect. Your children are only really rebels when they learn to say no. When they choose to say no and disobey you. You still have that happiness from when they were born? For the first time, you have a right to be angry.Your child no longer has a perfect relationship with you. They've stuffed it. You think you can still show them they same love and care when they were a toddler? They're not innocent anymore. They know that they don't have to do what you tell them. Of course you know you're right because you're the parent. You see the world around us. It's not innocent. Things decay and die. It's not perfect. It's because of the broken relationship between Creator and creation, just like you and your child; a.k.a. sin. Now if it was still in a perfect relationship, God the source of love and life, will gladly give these things to you. But because we've disobeyed Him as a creation, just like your child, this disobedience creates a barrier from you giving the perfect love. It's their problem that they don't accept it.You've done nothing wrong as a responsible parent. They're the ones not choosing to receive it. And so in this way our world has been separated from God's complete presence - it's the creation's rejection. And without His full blessing and love, the once perfect, innocent world is rotting away. It's a stuffed up world, because He is the one that sustains life, and the relationship has been broken. But that doesn't mean the father stops loving his child. You see it's not completely stuffed up. There's still some good in the world; because you don't stop loving your children just because they disobeyed you once and intentionally hurt you... (this should really go at the start of my analogy)
..you can see how if one person is convinced about the love of God through what they've experienced, then everything falls into place, the bible, the meaning of life, relationships between all people and God. If this love is real, and it it makes sense, then why can't one be convinced that God is real? Throughout the bible - God is love. Faith is belief without evidence? Historical evidence is just a bonus in many ways, the love of God is what really matters....
