The God of relationships

To know God better you have to know God. I mean like, know him personally. He's a being not just an idea. While there are mystical and incomprehensible things we'll never know about him (because he's God), he can certainly be known. To know God you have to go beyond gathering information about him...reading devotions, books, blogs or whatever and take the risk of saying, "I want to know you and be known by you."

God wanted a relationship so bad he created human beings. At the risk of getting all metaphysical, any kind of being wants relationships. Beings need community. So, God created humanity. Then he saw that it wasn't good for humans to be alone. I mean, walking and talking with God was great for the first human but the human needed a soul mate. Voila. God took care of that and created Eve for Adam. It was good. Very good.

Then it got bad. Humanity got self-centered and the result was being distanced from God. Humanity went on an "It's all about me" binge. The whole time God wanted to restore the relationship. He tried to show them that a relationship required sacrifice. They sort of got it, but few really understood. Humanity preferred to add God into the equation at their convenience instead of making a relationship a priority. Kind of self-centered, huh?

That didn't bother God. His love was so big, his forgiveness was so deep, his desire for a restored relationship with us was so consuming that he decided to become human. God in the flesh. Jesus Christ. From my perspective that was risky on God's part. Actually, it's remarkable. At many levels it's hard to imagine God becoming open and vulnerable to time and space and pain and suffering and rejection. And he, meaning Jesus Christ, went through all of that and still chose to sacrifice his life for you and me so the relationship could be restored. The power of his love chose to sacrifice everything. The power of his love resurrected Jesus Christ from the dead reaches out to us 24/7/365.

As I wrote this I was thinking and praying:

God, how could I not love you? You've been misrepresented, I've been self-centered, and you still chose to be open and vulnerable so I could know you. It's beyond my comprehension. I don't get it all, but thanks for doing it. Thanks for always being there. Thanks for loving me in spite of me. Thanks for helping me see how Jesus made it possible for me to have a relationship with you and to talk to you.

God's waiting to talk to you. It's definitely worth the risk.