Belonging to God
As human beings, we were created to live in relationship; in relationship with God and with each other. In the Genesis creation story God says, “it is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a partner.” Often though, we act as though we would rather be alone. We isolate ourselves in our homes with the door locks keeping ourselves in as much as they are keeping others out. We’re afraid to be vulnerable with others in case we get hurt – as too many of us have been in the past. While we might long for an idealised version of community where everyone just gets along, we know from experience that that is rarely the reality for long.
It has reached the point in our culture where it seems self-sufficiency is something we all need to strive for. It is embarrassing to have to ask for help, and we can feel awkward about offering it. It’s not surprising then if our culture doesn’t have a place for God: even the suggestion that we might need God exposes the futility of our quest to be self-sufficient.
In Jesus, we see God’s answer to our striving individuality. In Jesus, God leaves his heavenly home to enter ours’. In Jesus, God is vulnerable and is hurt by our rejection of him – to the point of death. But in Jesus, God joins himself with us and fills us with his love.
God’s deepest desire is that we would experience his love and through that be empowered to love others, and through this we would experience the depth of relationship Jesus has with his Father.
Jacob Traeger