If there is really soap why are there so many dirty people?
Doctors can’t be real if they were then doctor’s offices and hospitals wouldn’t be full of sick people.
If mechanics exists why are there so many broken down cars? For that matter, why didn’t the manufacturer make them to last longer?
Any of these questions seem familiar? No, not really? Let me change a word or two and I bet it’s something you’ve heard or maybe even said before. If there’s a loving God why is there so much bad in the world? If God exists why did He let [insert bad thing here] happen?
How about now? Do those sound familiar? It’s an idea that I think most people have thought at one time or another. Where is God when I’m going through this trial? If He cares so much why doesn’t He show up? People talk about His power, but I’m not seeing it. Why did my [insert relationship or person’s name] suffer? Why did [insert tragic event] happen?
I’m one of the few Christians out here that you’ll hear say this, but I don’t think it’s wrong to question. I think questions are good and they lead us to a deeper understanding. God condemns hardness of hearts, but I’ve never seen Him condemn honest confusion and questions.
Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not. Jeremiah 33:3
So let’s see if we can unwrap some of this together. Let’s start with creation. Actually, scratch that, let’s not, let’s start before creation, before Adam was ever formed because I hear the question if God is loving then why did He even make us knowing we all wouldn’t serve Him. Seems like a valid question so let’s discuss it. Before we continue remember I have no fancy degree, I’m not crazy educated, I’m just a girl with a Bible trying to figure out life the same as you.
One thing that I think we have to start with is the understanding that God is love. It’s literally His very nature. God isn’t sadistic and evil. He is love and out of that love flows righteousness and justice.
He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. 1 John 4:8
The LORD is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works. Psalm 145:17
Well, if God is love and knew people wouldn’t serve Him why create them in the first place? Wouldn’t a loving God just not make them? We’ve all heard that God gave us free will but honestly that seems like such a short answer that doesn’t make a lot of sense on the surface, even if it is an accurate answer. Choice has always been woven into our story and it started in the beginning in the Garden of Eden.
Choose you this day whom ye will serve…Joshua 24:15
God isn’t like us and we’ll never fully understand Him but we are made in His image, so we have some similarities. For a simple-minded person like me, I try and think about scenarios that are as similar as possible. Obviously I can’t create a person from nothing, I can’t create life at all, but if I were pregnant I sort of created life, right? So let’s say I’m pregnant and I find out the child I’m carrying has something wrong with it. There are many people that believe aborting the child is the best and even the loving thing to do. They believe that to let the child live is cruel.
Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. Psalm 127:3
Thy hands have made me and fashioned me… Psalm 119:73
This isn’t a post on abortion so I won’t go into that or we’ll be here for days going down rabbit holes left and right. Side note, there isn’t an abortion drink in Numbers. Back to the matter at hand. I believe letting the child live, even with the heartache this world has to offer, is the right choice. Giving the child love and an opportunity at life is more loving than taking his or her choices away. I believe even for the healthiest child this world will give heartache and pain. I believe before God ever created man He must have known this question would arise and I believe His answer was probably very similar to my thought on having a child even if there was something wrong. Giving the child an opportunity is the loving option. To take away their opportunity isn’t love, it’s a hostage situation where the hostage dies. In the same vein, I believe God giving us life even though He knows our choices is still an act of love. Maybe the simple answer really is that we have free will. Maybe free will is the foundation for a deeper answer.
OK, so we have free will, but that doesn’t explain why He even bothered to create man. This one is actually pretty simple to me. Let’s go back to the insane idea that I’d get pregnant. Why did I end up pregnant? No, no, no I don’t mean like that, you weirdo’s. Why would I ever want to be pregnant? Why would I want to carry a child? Why would I want to reproduce? There are lots of reasons that people want to have a child. Some are purely selfish; we’ll go ahead and ignore those. There are people that genuinely have so much love in them they want to share it. They want to produce a child just for the sake of loving the child. God is love, so I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say maybe He just wanted to create life because He loves us. God didn’t create us out of necessity, we were produced out of love, because His love is overflowing. Out of that love came humans just as out of human love comes children. Yes, I know that not all children are produced from love, but many are. Love generates life. Love creates, it’s what it does. Don’t forget God is love so out of God flows creation because Love creates. Think about any passion you have. Are you artistic? You create. Are you a writer? So you create poems, books, devotions, etc. Are you an engineer? You create designs. Enjoy baking? You create food with love. We all create in one way or another. We are created in God’s image so we create because He created. He created us and loves us enough to allow us the choice of how we live and where we go.
One last thing, just in case you weren’t aware, soap really does exist. It even comes with different scents. The problem is people don’t use it like they should. God’s love for us also exists even if we don’t believe it’s there.