Question for God
January 22, 2007
If you’re really out there and you surf the internet, I have a question. You don’t seem to hear my prayers, so maybe you could comment on a post. Does the fickle and inconsistent love of the majority of your people outweigh the rejection and anger of all those who don’t believe in you, especially the ones who have turned away from you?
A pointed and difficult question — at least for a mere mortal like me!
As a father of seven, I get plenty of “fickle” love from my kids, but when they express genuine love it is absolutely wonderful. One of my kids went through a phase when he was very angry toward me, and threatened to cut contact. I apologized for my part in the disagreement, and showed him in actions not just words that he meant so much to me. We had a great reconciliation, and the past is forgiven on both our parts.
I suppose that if some of my kids rejected me and claimed I wasn’t their dad, I’d feel sad, but probably worry about them. After all, they’d still be my kids regardless of their angry rejection.
The ancient man approached God … as the accused person approaches his judge. For the modern man the roles are reversed. He is the judge: God is in the dock. He is quite a kindly judge: if God should have a reasonable defence for being the god who permits war, poverty and disease, he is ready to listen to it. The trial may even end in God’s acquittal. But the important thing is that man is on the Bench and God in the Dock. (“God in the Dock,” in Lesley Walmsley, ed., C.S. Lewis: Essay Collection and Other Short Pieces [London: HarperCollins Publishers, 2000], p. 36)