Pollywogs and People

An excerpt from "Mr. God this is Anna" by Flynn
... 'Mister God made everything, didn't he?'

There was no point in saying anything that I didn't really know. I said 'Yes'.

'Even the dirt and the stars and the animals and the people and the trees and everything, and the pollywogs?' The pollywogs were those little creatures that we had seen under the microscope.

I said, 'Yes, he made everything.'

She nodded her agreement. 'Does Mister God love us truly?'

'Sure thing', I said. 'Mister God loves everything.'

'Oh', she said. 'Well then, why does he let things get hurt and dead?' Her voice sounded as if she
felt she had betrayed a sacred trust, but the question had been thought and it had to be spoken.

'I don't know', I replied. 'There's a great many things about Mister God that we don't know about.'

'Well then,' she continued, 'if we don't know many things about Mister God, how do we know he loves us?'

I could see this was going to be one of those times, but thank goodness she didn't an answer to her question for she hurried on: 'Them pollywogs, I could love them till I bust, but they wouldn't know, would they? I'm million times bigger than they are and Mister God is millions times bigger than me, so how do I know what Mister God does?'

She was silent for a little while. Later I thought that at this moment she was taking her last look at babyhood. Then she went on:

'Fynn, Mister God doesn't love us.' She hesitated. 'He doesn't really, you know, only people can love. I love Bossy, but Bossy don't love me. I love the pollywogs, but they don't love me. I love you, Fynn, and you love me, don't you?'

I tightened my arm about her.

'You love me because we are people. I love Mister God truly, but he don't love me.'

It sounded like a death-knell. 'Damn and blast', I thought. 'Why does this have to happen to people" Now she's lost everything.' But I was wrong. She had got both feet planted firmly on the next stepping-stone.

'No', she went on, 'no, he don't love me, not like you do, it's different, it's millions of times bigger.'

I must have made some movement or noise for she levered herself upright and sat on her haunches and giggled. Then she launched herself at me and undid my little pang of hurt, cut out the useless spark of jealousy with the delicate sureness of a surgeon.

'Fynn, you can love better than any of the people that ever was, and so can I, can't I? But Mister God is different. You see, Fynn, people can only love outside and can only kiss outside, but Mister God can love you right inside, and Mister God can kiss you right inside, so it's different. Mister God aint like us; we are a little bit like Mister God, but not much yet.'

It seemed to me to reduce itself to the fact that we were like God because of some similarities but God was not like us because of our difference. Her inner fires had refined her ideas, and like some alchemist she had turned lead into gold. Gone were all the human definitions of God, like Goodness, Mercy, Love and Justice, for these were merely props to describe the indescribable.

'You see, Fynn, Mister God is different from us because he can finish things and we can't. I can't finish loving you because I shall be dead millions of years before I can finish, but Mister God can finish loving you, and so it's not the same kind of love, is it? Even Mister Jether's love is not the same as Mister God's because he only came here to make us remember.'

'There's another way Mister God is different.' We obviously hadn't finished yet. 'Mister God can know things and people from the inside too. We only know them from the outside, don't we? So you see, Fynn, people can't talk about Mister God from the outside; you can only talk about Mister God from the inside of him.'

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Without getting into all the theology and resultant proof texting I think God (Father, Son & Spirit) sees all of humanity as His children. He created us, sustains us, knows the best and worst about us and yet loves us "a million times bigger" then we earthly parents love our children and grandchildren.

For some reason we cling to the work Adam did to cause us to think we are repulsive to Him and ignore the work that Jesus accomplished to demonstrate how much the Father loves us. We don the filthy diapers of religion, systems, programs, piety and self-righteousness to hide our nakedness because we think we are too unlovable and unacceptable to live in the affection of the Father, Son and Spirit. We are so wrong.

He created us to love us, not to demonstrate His superior morality, purity and power. In a thousand ways He reaches out to us showing us His tender affections and mostly we flee from His ministrations.

We fall for the same deception that befell our originating parents. It was not so much their disobedience or unbelief, but the wrong belief of underestimating His love for them (us). We, our theology, our "churches", and in our minds, simply cannot comprehend such an amazing love so we reject it or minimize it or add terms and conditions. We turn His pure and unconditional love for us into rules, rituals and religion.

Often we hear that God never changes, but proponents of a God who is angry and bent on punishment pick a time somewhere in the OT when it appears that God was smiting and spreading pestilence, that they say is the God who never changes. I say the God who never changes is the one spoken of in Eph 1.

Long before he laid down earth's foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love. Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure he took in planning this!) He wanted us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved Son.

Because of the sacrifice of the Messiah, his blood poured out on the altar of the Cross, we're a free people—free of penalties and punishments chalked up by all our misdeeds. And not just barely free, either. Abundantly free! He thought of everything, provided for everything we could possibly need, letting us in on the plans he took such delight in making. He set it all out before us in Christ, a long-range plan in which everything would be brought together and summed up in him, everything in deepest heaven, everything on planet earth.

Like Anna I believe He planned from before creation to love us and finish us.