I’m a woodworker. I build custom furniture that ranges from high end craft to art. Often a piece requires hundreds of operations. And sometimes………near the very end……..something goes wrong. Maybe I miscalculated. Maybe there was a defect in the wood that was buried until I cut my way down to it. Maybe a component just broke as I worked on it. Suddenly, I find myself looking at piece that I have put an enormous amount of effort into……and there is a flaw. Maybe it’s tiny………maybe it is catastrophic.
What do I do?
There really are only a few options. Repair the flaw, minimize it, or toss the whole thing into the fireplace and start all over. Sometimes, I leave the flaw and consider it a part of the character of the piece. I have done all of these things.
I am not surprised that God visited us as a carpenter. Jesus would have been very familiar with the flaw that shows up toward the end of the process of creating something. After an enormous amount of work, this thing that he was building is flawed. He would have had a similar set of options when he assessed his flawed creation……fix it, minimize it, ignore it, or burn it down and start all over.
There is another angle to God’s dilemma. When you build something beautiful and special, you become attached to it. It is very hard to destroy something that you are attached to……… something that you have put a lot of effort into. I have thrown pieces into the fire. But, that is rare. I reserve that for flaws that are truly catastrophic. More often, I work hard to salvage the piece. Often this takes a lot of effort, but I keep at it until I have a piece that I can send out of the shop with pride.
Surely, God must face this same decision………every day. This world, his creation, is seriously……. perhaps catastrophically flawed. Ironically, the flaw flows from his original design concept. Create man, give him free will, and let him build a relationship with you. But, we have taken free will……..and abused it. The result is a world of beauty, love, kindness, hate, murder, deceit and more.
What does God do?
Fix it? Take away our free will. God could dictate our choices for us and only allow us to do the things that are good. The problem is that we would become a society of automatons……pre-programmed to love God. And, you and I both know that you cannot force somebody to love you……. because, even if you could, the love would be meaningless. Love must be freely given……..by choice. We must freely choose to love God……. otherwise it is meaningless.
Burn it down and start all over? This is a very attractive option. Except for the fact that, in addition to wanting us to love him, God loves us……with a passion that we cannot even imagine. I believe that God’s love for us is so all encompassing that destroying us is an option that is just not on the table. I hope that I am right about this.
Minimize and Ignore it? Of all of God’s options, this one is the most improbable. But, thankfully, it is the one he has chosen. God leaves the flaw in place and through the sacrifice that he, Jesus, willingly choose to make, he ignores it. He even goes one step further. Once we have recognized and accepted his gift……his personal sacrifice………God minimizes our flaw until even he can no longer see it. It’s a win-win deal. We spend eternity in relationship with our creator……..which was, after all, what we were designed for. God enjoys his creation free from any perceptible flaws. The price that God paid to achieve this is hard to imagine.
And I am grateful.
The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
David, NIV