From Genesis Sidebar 1
2006.May.13 15:45
Why Did God Create Humanity?
I wanted to take a sidebar this week to explain a bit to anyone who has been reading along. I don’t claim to know the answer to the titular question, but there are some ideas that make sense to me, which might help explain an occasional logical leap in my thoughts as I read and comment through the Bible, on this blog.
Here’s what I’ve been thinking:
God, existing–and I won’t bother to ponder that one right now–wanted friends. He had all he needed, but he wanted friends. There are some important things I’ve noticed about my friends:
- They like being around me.
- They don’t try to prove themselves better than me.
- They have at least some similar interests and experiences as I do.
All of my friends share these traits. Any trait is missing, I tire of that person real quick. I’m going to guess that God wanted friends with these traits. I could be completely wrong, but since I am made in his image, I’m going to take that guess. Now, being self-existant, God has to create any friends he could end up having. What qualities do these friends need.
To like being around God: This requires the development of a relationship, one which may be shaky at first. This will take time. Of course, God also will need to enjoy being around me which means I have to be the kind of person he wants to spend time around, which requires the next two steps, plus some individuality thrown in.
To not try to place myself above God: This is hard. If I am made in God’s image (a probably requirement for the next step), I will want to be God. It is natural to me to try to place myself ahead of him, which will just not work, even more so because he is God. If I am trying to overthrow him, he will not enjoy my company.
To have similar experiences and interests. In other words, to be made in his image. There’s a second super important requirement. God has incredible knowledge and understanding. This includes the knowledge that it is possible for me to want to come against him. I required this similar experience of choosing whether or not to be a friend, otherwise, I could not understand him. I also needed the experience of having people reject my friendship, because this is something God regularly experiences.
Here’s the problem. The moment he makes that choice available to me, a person made his image, with his own desire to godhood–of which he is deserving and I am not–I will choose to try to gain knowledge to prove myself deserving. Always, I would try. The process is, now that I have that knowledge, choosing to become his friend, to be humble before him, humble enough to accept his sacrifice, because then I show him that I am ready to be his friend.
So, that’s my thought. I even think that God set things up so that this would be the best of all possible worlds, with the condition that humanity, as a whole, could be a true friend to him. And voila. Earth and humanity. As I said, this is a guess, based on what I know of God and whatever things have influenced my thinking throughout my life. I don’t pretend it’s probably to be right, but it may help readers better understand my other thoughts.
