Chapter 2 -- Love

 Here's an excerpt from chapter 2. Here's the overall book concept and an excerpt from the chapter on mystery.

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So what is God’s attitude toward those who are not “on God’s team,” so to speak? We have already seen that the Bible says “God is love” and that “God loved the world.” That seems fundamental. Does this apply to God’s enemies?

Jesus says so in Matthew 5:43-48. “You have heard it said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy,’ but I say, ‘Love your enemies’” (5:43). Jesus goes on to say that this is exactly how God acts toward the unrighteous, giving them sun and rain. The paragraph ends by saying that we need to go the whole way like God does and love our enemies.

Verses like these in the Bible show us that God is not only loving toward those who follow but also those who do not. The "righteous" are not the only ones. 1 Timothy 2:4 says that God wants everyone to be saved, including such ungodly people like the Roman emperor. 2 Peter 3:9 says that God does not want anyone to perish but for everyone to be reconciled with God.

The book of Jonah in the Old Testament has an astounding message when you think of how focused the Old Testament is in general on the people of Israel. One of its messages is that God cares even about Ninevites. When they turn to God, God forgives them. God cares about the sailors on the boat who serve other gods. In fact, the person who is the worst example in the book is the Israelite Jonah himself, the preacher guy who knows the most about God with his head. God even seems to care about the animals in Nineveh (Jonah 4:11). Jesus says that God even notices every sparrow that dies (Matt. 10:29).

This is something that is impossible for me to grasp! My family has been raising chickens of late. We are not raising them to eat but for eggs and just for fun. We have named them and every one is special to us.

Yesterday, one of the smaller ones died. We’re not sure why. Perhaps it had something to do with the chill of the morning. Perhaps one of the other chickens pecked it just wrong. Who knows?

But we were all sad yesterday for Ellie. We will ask why God allows so much death in the world soon enough. I do think that death is perhaps not as bad as we sometimes think it is. It is natural, at least as the world is now. We will ask those questions in chapter 7.

For now, I note that the almighty creator of the universe, who put the stars into space, noticed the passing of Ellie yesterday. It is dumbfounding. It is unfathomable. If it is hard to grasp the vastness and tremendous mystery of God, it is thereby even harder to understand that God cares about the sparrows and chickens of this small planet.