The LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He
was grieved in His heart.
– Genesis 6:6
How bad do things have to get before they hurt the heart of God?
When God created man God said, “It is very good” (Gen. 1:31)
and we understand that God deeply “loved” this being (John 3:16; Rom. 5:8; Eph.
2:4; 2 Thess. 2:16; Rev. 1:5).
But in creating man with the capacity to love, he also
included the ability for man to choose. Love is nonexistent without choice; as
anyone who has ever loved someone who has not loved them back fully
understands. So, by giving man the gift of choice, God put His own heart on the
line. He took the risk that His creation would choose to refuse His love for
them.
Having the right to
choose means that people can choose to love other than God. Surely, there have been
times that all of us have chosen to love the creation more than the Creator. I
can only imagine the grief we’ve caused Him.
The good news is that God is always faithful, even when we
are faithless (2 Tim. 2:13) and continues to draw us back to Himself (James
4:8) which is where we were created to be.
May we live each day to make God’s heart happy?
