What can we learn about our creator from our experience as procreators? Do you want your children to love you as you love them? Does every intentional and capable procreator, of whom you are aware, not want their children to love them as they love their children? Does it not follow that every intentional and capable creator, including our creator, wants its created to love it as it loves them? If all this makes sense, then we can know, as well as we know anything, that our creator wants us to love it as it loves us.
Of course, you may think to yourself, “If my creator wanted me to love it, why would it not tell me that or even give me a fleeting glimpse of itself?” Well, ask yourself these questions. “Have I ever been face to face with an all-powerful, all-knowing and eternal being? If that were to ever happen to me, would I not be at a loss as to how to respond? Would I not be completely overwhelmed and incapable of taking it in? Would I have any choice other than to bow down and subserviently worship my creator? But if my creator wants me to love it, must I not progress far beyond subservient worship?"
What’s the difference between freely given love and subservient worship? What do we personally experience of each? Do we not experience subservience in our pet’s relationship with us? Let’s exclude cats from this example! Pets know they need to make themselves whatever we want of them because they are dependent on us for their meal ticket. They may show affection, but that affection is self-serving. They have no choice but to do whatever we insist upon. We expect no more of them.
By contrast, do we not desire freely given love from our children? Initially, their love is based on their total dependence on us, much like a pet’s affection for us. However, before too many years, they forget about their dependency and make daily choices whether to show us freely given love. We are completely dependent on their choices. We patiently wait for their choices to show us love. We wait for them to become as loving of us as we are of them. We want their love rather than their subservience. We want much more from them than we expect from our pets.
Earlier, we concluded that our creator wants us to love it as it loves us? For this to happen must it not reach out to us and speak to us? Instead, it keeps itself hidden and doesn't speak a word to us. And now we know why. We've seen that it can’t even show us its magnificence, much less dialogue with us, To show itself would overwhelm our free will to choose to love it.
Is our creator stuck between a rock and a hard place? Or does it have a way of communicating with us without showing itself or speaking? That would solve the conundrum, but what could that way be? Might it simply be waiting for us to show that we freely love it by making the first move? We'll reflect on these questions in Is Your Creator Awaiting a Response to its Constant Outreach.
Del H. Smith conducts research into life’s meaning and is the award-winning author of the AMAZON Best Seller, Discovering Life’s Purpose.