You might be surprised to hear that God does not love all His creation in the same way. You see, He has a special relationship with humanity, because we (male and female) are made in the image of God, in a way that nothing else in creation is.
Genesis 1:26-28 Then God said,
"Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness……. So, God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
Until this point, God has seen everything He had made as 'good'. But when He created man, He declared that he was 'very good'. All of the created world was perfect in form, function, and potential until this point.
But something wasn't right. The Lord God said,
"It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him."
And so God created for him, a helper - woman.
The word used for 'helper' here, does not make the woman 'lesser', in fact, this word is often used to describe God, Himself. (Psalm 10:14, 33:20, 55:4, 70:5 and 115:9 to name a few.)
God did not create people to be alone, His intention was, (and still is) that they shared their lives, and together walk with Him, in relationship with the LORD, (Yahweh) God.
The word Yahweh Lord is the personal covenant name for God that He uses with His friends, those who know Him, who are in covenant with Him, the name used to reveal himself to His covenant people who He loves. Like when He reveals His name as Yahweh to Moses at the burning bush in Exodus 3 and says,
"Do not come any closer," God said. "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground."
He then gives His name as Yahweh. This gives us some insight into His character and the love He has for His people when He goes on to say I have seen their misery, I have heard their crying, I am concerned for their suffering so have come down to rescue them."
Relationship With God
It's the same Yahweh who knows you, sees you, hears you, has concern for you and comes to rescue and meet with you. Our holy God wants to be in relationship with us, how awesome is that?! God recognises our need for relationship not only with Him, but with others.
We know God didn't just love us from afar John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."
John 4:10 "This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins."
Praise the Lord that God created a way for us to be in relationship with Him, I cannot get my head around how He could love us so much, and that he even gives His only Son, but He does love us, He absolutely does!
Relationship With Jesus
Jesus being fully God and fully man, was in eternal relationship with the Father and the Holy Spirit, they were together before, and at creation, and continue to be in relationship for all eternity but being fully human too, you can constantly see that He desired relationships. He wanted us to have a relationship with Him. Let's look at some examples of this:
Luke 19:10 "For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost."
Matthew 23:37 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.
And what about at His death, when He cried father forgive them, or that He died that we might have life and an eternal relationship with Him, if we accept Jesus as our Saviour.
Relationship With Others
Jesus models fellowship, and relationship with others. Let's look at some examples of that in Jesus' life:
Just before Jesus went to the cross as the last supper, He wanted to spend this time with His friends Luke 22:15 "I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer"
Or when He was in the garden of Gethsemane where He went with the disciples to pray before the arrest, He asked his disciples to sit for a while whilst He prayed and took Peter and two others with Him and we know He was troubled, in Luke it tell us His sweat was like drops of blood and He cried out, in Mathew 26:38 to 40 it says,
"My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me." And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, "My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will." And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, "So, could you not watch with me one hour?
Jesus experienced every emotion we may experience, loneliness, rejection, hurt, grief at the death of Lazarus, physical and emotional pain, every temptation we have in our relationships. And as He shared in our humanity, He understands what we go through. Jesus calls us His brothers and sisters. Yes, I, we, are sisters with Jesus, joint heirs with Christ, we are never alone.
What Does It Mean For Us?
We may not all have the perfect experience of relationships, everyone of us will have different life stories and we will be looking at some of these this week, but the bible gives us a pattern for relationships, fellowship, community, and being a family.
Acts 2:42-47 gives us an example of how to develop our relationship with Jesus and each other, devoting ourselves to the word and teaching, fellowship, praying together, eating together, being family/community v 44-45
"And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved."
We look out for each other, no one should be alone, we should be one, supporting, encouraging, and drawing alongside each other, living out how Jesus wants us to live and hoping that others will see Jesus and see people being saved every day. Just imagine what a difference that would make in our communities, in our families and churches.
God places the lonely in families, He comforts the broken, finds the lost, and endless other things and He calls us to be part of that, we are made to be in relationship with God and each other. We are called to live this out.
Jackie x
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