NO FAVORITES!

 I  AM ESPECIALLY FOND OF THAT ONE

We all, to one degree or another, know who God is. After all, who among us has not met Him in our quiet times spent in His Word? Many have witnessed His glorious painting in the myriad colors of fall foliage a summer sunset. We hear His music when waves crash on rocks or in the lilting song of a bird greeting the arrival of a brand new day. We observe love that reflects His love as we watch a mother caring for her child or when we hear about a person who has risked his life pulling someone to safety who has fallen down onto the subway tracks. We get His guidance from the lyrics of songs and His counsel from conversations we have with others. He is always present with us, and if we open our hearts to Him we will learn much.

I know all this to be true, but there are still the dry times when I find myself wondering who He really is and what He is really about. Like Paul I don’t always do the things I want to or should do…and sometimes, if you can believe it, I do things that not only I don’t want to do but that He does not want me to do either. I am not talking major bad behavior here, although sin is sin regardless of my ranking it as or small. Still, I want you to know that what I am meaning here is behavior…sometimes open and sometimes not visible…that leaves me falling short of who I should be in spite my position of royalty as a child of the King.

You know, I am thinking that if we actually knew who our heavenly Father really is, it might be easier for us to follow the path He has set out for us without detours. But then again, maybe not. I do know who He is, but this knowledge becomes clouded by how complicated I always make Him. This is understandable considering the fact that He always was; He is, and He always will be. How do I wrap my mind around this Creator God who does not owe His existence to any other person or happening. How do I even begin to understand God, when the Bible and my learning about God, tells me that He is three persons in one God? Huh? Now that is complicated, don’t you think? So, I proceed on faith that these and many other things are true, even though I am always looking at them through a glass darkly.

Still, I think that the clue to understanding it all is to be aware of the fact that I should not make it so complicated. This is a good plan, but we even do that with the people that we look up to in life. We put someone on a pedestal and then spin a web around that person. Our web holds our admiration for who we think that person to be, and, because we revere this individual, we add attributes and feelings that may or may not be easy to understand or substantiate. Our web eventually becomes so thick that we cannot see who our “idol” truly is. While it is true that God is our Idol and Ideal, one who is in fact worthy of all our admiration, the reality is that we create a bona fide situation where we “cannot see the forest for the trees.” We make Him so complicated that much of what we can know and learn is hidden by the lush leaves of our imagining.

I have been reading THE SHACK by Wm. Paul Young. In the book God is called Papa, which in itself simplifies our vision of who He is. A Papa is a gentle kind of father…one who will love his child, one who will cherish his child, and one who, when discipline is required, corrects in a way that does not destroy a piece of the child’s vision of himself or herself. Several times in the book, as God is thinking or talking about someone, He says, “I am especially fond of that one.” A very beautiful part of that statement is that God’s professed fondness is not based on the constant rightness or compliancy of the individual.

Are you wondering where I am going with this? I do have a point to make. This book has really impacted my life. Oh I know, it is just a story and at times a preposterous one, but, in the end, it brings God to life in His beauty and simplicity. I have had many “aha moments” while reading this story. These moments have stuck with me in my day to day life popping into my mind when least expected and most needed….times when I am about to be like the disciple Paul choosing the low road instead of the scenic route of right behavior.

I will give you an example. I was driving the other day downtown not far from the high school. A young teenager was at the corner crossing and proceeded to start across the street. He had nice clothes on, but they must have belonged to a sumo wrestler. They certainly did not fit his skinny body. He had to walk with his legs spread out to keep his shorts, which were so long they came to mid calf, from falling down to his ankles. His sweatshirt stood out at least five inches from his hips. I started in on my self talk. “Oh, my gosh, would you look at him!” “Wonder if I will end up seeing his jockey shorts before he makes it across the street.” “Doesn’t he know how stupid he looks? Well there you have it. He probably is dumb as a box of rocks.” “Where the heck was his mother when came down to leave for school.” These are just a few of the thoughts that went through my mind as I watched him proceeding to the opposite corner. However, before he even made it to the curb, my own convictions kicked me figuratively to the curb myself. What do you think popped into my head? You got it. “I am especially fond of that one.”

Isn’t it a beautiful thing that God loves His children in this way? No matter how stupid I look or act, no matter how dense my thinking is, no matter how brainless, how dimwitted, or how obtuse I am, God still loves me. This includes loving me when I am not actual pleasing to him. I want to quote a couple of lines from the book. The main character is asking why God would love him. He says…

“But why me? I mean, why Mackenzie Allen Phillips? Why do you love someone who is such a screw-up? …... why would you even bother to keep trying to get through to me?” “Because that is what love does,” answered Papa. Remember, Mackenzie, I don’t wonder what you will do or what choices you will make. I already know.” (He goes on to say that, for instance, He might know that Mack will get something on the forty seventh time.) “So when you don’t hear me the first time, I’m not frustrated or disappointed. I’m thrilled. Only forty-six more times to go.”

That whole idea thrilled me. He is the one that I have to answer to, the most important one. He is patient and willing to wait for me to get it. He welcomes the idea that learning and understanding comes in layers. He is ready to provide the necessary layers that I need to get something. It is amazing.

There have been many times when I am starting to be judgmental about someone. It can happen when the individual is someone I don’t know or even someone I do know. Suddenly it will pop into my mind that God is “especially fond of that one.” It is very good to remember, and it results in a paradigm shift in my negative thinking. But more exciting to me is the awareness that, when I have messed up in grand style, that God is not far away from me. This is a simple and beautiful part of who He is and who I know Him to be. And, in the midst of my feelings of threatening guilt for a bad choice, I remind myself that in my case as well God is saying…

 Written by Corinne H. Mustafa