What's His Hurry?
The Big Book says God has secrets belonging only to Him and at depths of knowledge making some of His judgments untraceable (Romans 11.33). That Distance from clarity can be a torment. I want to watch us on His Screen with the Son of Man doing color commentary. Life’s fascination is in the details, don’t we know, and They miss nothing! (Yes, Trinitarian.) Imagine the “movies” we have all starred in – and the Higher Audiences (including the “angels” – whatever they are exactly). Of God’s directives to those legions made a little higher than us, do they more often hear regarding here “that will require some discipline” or “reward/encourage more of that”?
Biblical cosmogony from the first chapter of Christianity’s primary document declares the central function of Earth’s highest creature – Adam/Man, in tandem as male and female, powerfully complementary – to be God’s image bearer, representatives having rule and dominion, being fruitful and multiplying, keeping and cultivating the Earth as garden, bringing forth treasure from the soil, from plants, from animals. The seed is received and fruitfulness results – easily, whether soil or womb.
God is on record playing serious games with us who have been made a “little lower.” Job’s ordeals and Paul’s sifting were prompted by a proud, powerful entity testing God’s resolve to finish what had been started, to refine image-bearers who can withstand toil and trouble. That Job and Peter had trials and challenges discussed and arranged beforehand in the Heavenlies stops me in my tracks time and again. What is going on Up There? Whatever is, God does not seem to be in a hurry – at all – to resolve human shortcoming and injustice and suffering, often en masse. Are we that “fun” to watch? Surely amusement is not behind it all. But musing? I think so.
Job was eventually double-blessed and Paul returned to the fold, as predicted. High drama, indeed. Why wouldn’t it be true that you and I have also been protagonists/antagonists, major and minor actors in countless comedies and tragedies for Heavenly screening. That “angels long to look into” the Divine’s orchestration of human redemption should fascinate us (I Peter 1:12). Why did they not get the same deal? (Biblically, grace extended to the angels [all males, fyi] is hard to find.)
Humans, from the beginning, have been full of expression, pressing out, moving the tent pegs, increasing their hegemonies, managing the environment to meet needs and wants. The Creator has watched our technological advance over much time: controlling fire, manufacturing wheels, shaping metals, refining sound through instrumentation, and now trading information all over the planet in nanoseconds. Routinely, cattle pens and slaughterhouses lead to dining tables with filled and garnished plates resembling fine wall art. God watches us leave representations of ourselves, makings in our image (as He did), the sending forth of self-expression in words, numerals, images, and manufacturing -- expressions in ever-increasing complexity, exactitude, and scope.
Dominion starts in sandboxes and treehouses, but He watches us standing intelligently over complicated and dangerous medical procedures. He watches us fly into space, photograph the ocean floor, and put nearly everyone in the driver’s seat of an automobile that can go 130 mph. God enjoyed watching Edison and Einstein at their labs and chalkboards, for sure. They were discovering the intricate possibilities of living within the Created Order. Lately, a virus ravaged the world (nothing new), but a few found it and made something to neutralize its lethality.
And if God made man over much time, (time and chance get nothing done without matter and design/information) and we discover stages along an “evolutionary” journey, who wouldn’t say, “what a spectacle” if we had eyes to see growth that miniscule and gradual and purposeful.
Having spent more time than I would have wished brooding over the Problem of Evil (a good and powerful God allowing so much suffering), I have found some solace pondering the satisfactions of God as Creator. He is portrayed in Genesis 1 as gazing satisfyingly over “it all” and pronouncing early on “very good”! Might viewing satisfaction be a current factor in the delay to restore all things? Does He not delight in our rule and dominion over animals and minerals and electromagnetic, nuclear and gravitational forces? How long, oh Lord, until the suffering stops? Until we inhabit Mars? Why wouldn’t He want us to travel intergalactically? I’m not expecting a soon Second Coming. Too much yet for Man to discover!
Human history is replete with “small step{s} for man [that are] giant leap[s] for mankind.” God most and best knows just how “fearfully and wonderfully made” we are. We accomplish so much – each of us in our own manner and capacity – and oftentimes for “good” reasons. We incessantly discover, improve, extend, safeguard, heal and, yes, vaccinate! (Sorry.)
The Mind of God includes so much more than what has been revealed. The healing of the nations has been and will be quite a slow process. As God watches current generations around the world moving amongst the races and colors so much more fluidly together, the view is surely “good.” Why the “hurry up”? (Remember: a sizable portion of the angels do not welcome The End, but that’s another topic.) No one has the slightest idea when Jesus is returning (the last rites for dispensational premillennialism being performed more than two decades ago). But, I’m glad to have found a significant place amongst my theological paradigms for an emphasis on God as Creator and the orderliness and wonder of it all. So much to do! However, marana-tha – always.