The Astonishing Way In Which God Chooses To Relate To Us
In my last blog post, I wrote about how Jesus showed me that He has chosen to reveal Himself to us in ways that actually affirm who we are. Rather than creating minions to do His bidding and lording over us, God created humans so He could be in relationship with them. So rather than simply focussing on His position of majesty, authority and power, He reveals Himself to us in ways that reflect His heart of love: as Father, Saviour, Wonderful Counsellor, the Good Shepherd…
It was a huge encouragement to me seeing the generosity of His heart towards us and His affirmation of who we are, but now I would like to share some further insights He gave me – because there is so much more to see!
I have been reading a book called ‘The Shack Revisited’ by C Baxter Kruger, and I was beginning to get a deeper understanding of some profound insights into the character of God and His heart towards us. However, the understanding was taking a while to get from my head to my heart. But then God, in His wonderful all-knowing and intimate-understanding-of-each-of-us type way, gave me a deeper revelation of the truths which I was reading about.
This was all instigated by the question He asked me, “Who do you say I am?”
I think God knew where that question would lead me – and with my recent reading fresh in my mind, He tied it all together in quite a beautiful way. Because one of the very things I think He was trying to help me to grasp was in fact at work in me during the process.
As I explained in my previous post, when God asked me, “Who do you say I am?”, He had done it in response to a question from me. Hoping for some encouragement, I had asked God who He thought I was. His answer – a flip of my question, was certainly not from me. My thoughts were very clearly not heading in that direction! But the thought process it then led me into proved to be incredibly helpful in affirming my identity.
As my spiritual director has encouraged me to notice, when we have a thought that is clearly not our own, and yet is profoundly life-bringing, it is compelling evidence of the ‘other’ – that someone else is at work, a wonderful counsellor even, speaking to our hearts. He was reminding me of the slightly crazy truth that He lives in my heart. It was like the practical lesson at school that brings the theory to life, from the greatest teacher of all time!
My thoughts were led from things I remembered from Scriptures and teachings about who God is, to insights that had been offered in Kruger’s book, and I began to see more fully the extent to which God has chosen to identify with us. I would hazard a guess that I am not the only one who has not fully appreciated the magnitude of it – and in a world in which so much can undermine our feelings of worth and security, it is life-bringing to grasp just how much God has chosen to connect Himself with us.
Because the incredible truth is that He didn’t just demonstrate His love for us by doing things for us or by calling us His beloved – in the sort of way that you might demonstrate affection for your pet dog by giving it a name, feeding it the right foods and taking it for long walks. No, He took it to a whole other level – He fully identified with us.
At creation, when God made man (and woman), he did so in His own image (Gen 1:27). He didn’t have to do that. He could have made us any way He chose. Perhaps if He had made us with less capacity for being creative and independent thought, we might have caused less destruction – but He wanted us to reflect aspects of Himself. In doing so, He assigned worth to us – by creating this fundamental affiliation between us. He wanted us to be a bit like Him. But then He went even further.
The Creator determined that He would have an even more intrinsic association with His created beings: Jesus became a human for eternity. The Creator became a part of His creation – and this astonishing fact is actually integral to many of the ways in which He has revealed Himself to us. For example, the Wonderful Counsellor fully understands us having experienced life as one of us – He came as a dependent baby, grew up, was tempted in every way, suffered and was rejected. Moreover, His identifying with us was a fundamental part of His taking our place at the cross, taking upon Himself all our sins and darkness, that He could be our Saviour.
But there’s even more: not only has He come into our lives, but He has invited us into His1. We died with Him on the cross, and so were also raised with Him. Our life is now hidden in Him, we are seated in heavenly realms in Christ. (Rom 6:6, Col 3:1-3, Eph 2:6) In John, Jesus declares,
“On that day you will realise that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.”
(John 14:20)
This is a deeply personal association. It is quite frankly mind-blowing that the Creator would choose to become so intrinsically connected with His creation, ie the things He has made, for eternity. What worth and honour has been bestowed upon us, as the created, to be invited into relationship with God in such a substantive manner – an eternal communion with Him, sitting in Him in the heavenly places – and never of course due to our own merits, always entirely upon His.
Stop and think about this for a minute – the enormity of it. You are in Christ, and He is in the Father. You are in God. In heavenly realms. God declares you worthy to be found in Him, to be in eternal relationship with Him in an utterly profound way. Having been created to be in relationship with Him, our identity is intrinsically tied to who He is – who we are to Him and in Him. And He has brought us in fully, we are integrated into who He is: we are in the Son, who is in the Father and Holy Spirit is in us. What dignity is conferred upon us in the forging of such a deep connection.
And I realised with a smile that even in bringing me to this point of understanding, God was confirming the message of His deep connection with us. The interruption of my thoughts in such an instructive way clearly revealed His presence within me. His small voice spoke to my heart and led me to a better grasp of the dignity that is conferred upon us: that He, the Lord Most High, would choose to make His home in us and invite us to be at home in Him.
Isn’t it just amazing how He chooses to be so personally involved in our lives, speaking to our innermost beings in ways perfectly tailored to us– and how this points to the even more astonishing truth of just how much He has related Himself to us and us to Him!
1 For more on this, see “The Shack Revisited” by C. Baxter Kruger