Now That's Love, Part II

If it is true that God can only act in love, then there would be no suffering, no evil, no condemnation, right?

No - suffering, evil and condemnation resulted because man did not love God not because God did not love man. Though God gave the first man and woman everything they could have wanted, they still wanted more. They wanted to be the Creator instead of the created. It was an impossible desire, but the allure of choice inflated man with the illusion of power and control.....for if they could break free of the boundary perhaps they could become their own master. The possibility of power was more appealing than relationship with the all-powerful Creator. But what they did not understand is that they were made for relationship with the Creator. When they chose to break free of the boundary, they lost a part of their identity and gained a burden that they were never intended to carry: the burden of being separated from Love and all of the decay that comes with such a separation.

God desired to keep them from ever knowing such decay, that is why He set the boundary. Yet it was God's love, as well as His desire to offer authentic relationship, that enabled them the option of overstepping the boundary. Authentic relationship always carries with it the possibility of rejection.

The hardest aspect for me to understand is God's desire for relationship with a created being when He has perfect relationship within the Trinity...He did not need relationship with man, He wanted relationship with man. He wanted to give life to a creation in His own image, a creation that could feel, think and express, because He wanted to bless that creation.

A Love without selfish intent is very hard to comprehend. You may feel that in creating us God showed selfishness - Didn't He create us for Himself? No, He created us to bless us with Himself, to share Himself with us. He wanted us to experience the perfect relationship that He shares within the Trinity. He is everything good. He is perfect love. To give perfect goodness and perfect love to someone else is not selfishness, it is an act of unnecessary kindness. We were created so that we could know Love -- and Love felt that sharing Love was worth the rejection -- now that's Love!