By now, you have probably learned that I am a social Neanderthal, breaking all the rules of political correctness. My favorite subjects for dialogue are politics and religion, both declared verboten by the social police. Could it be that somewhere, sometime, someone realized that the best way to maintain darkness was to restrict the very discussion of light? Let me tell you the story of my best friend.
As I have stated previously, I believe that almighty God created the universe and all that is therein. Lastly, He created man and woman in His image. I take that to mean we don’t look like Him, but we are like Him because we can communicate, as you and I are doing now. We have a “spirit,” which He chose not to give to the animals. The real purpose of our creation was to fellowship with Him, and it is this spirit within us which enables us to do so. I believe its dwelling place in the body is just behind your eyes.
In His great love, He did not want us to be His robots, with no other alternative. So He endowed us with a beautiful thing – free choice – to fellowship or not to fellowship. As a symbol, only, of that free choice; He planted a beautiful, attractive tree with luscious fruit thereon. He instructed the first man and woman not to eat of that inviting fruit, all the time knowing they would make the wrong choice; just as He knows you and I will always do, in spite of our best intentions.
Isn’t it a wondrous thing that in His omniscience, He knew before He created us exactly what would happen. And yet He still wanted our fellowship, in spite of our wrong choices. So before He ever exploded the big bang, He had decided the only way we would ever truly understand His love for us, was if He became a man, Himself, and came into our little world. Then He could communicate with us face to face, in simple phrases that we all could understand. He would even show us that it is possible to totally surrender to and trust Him, even to the point of death.
After He proved it, He said that with, but only with, our approval (can you imagine that) He would take complete responsibility for all our mistakes– past and future. All we had to do was make the decision to come back into fellowship with Him. Once again, He gave us a totally free choice! I am so glad I made that decision long ago. Now He and I enjoy a fellowship which is truly beyond human description. As He and I celebrate His birthday this week, we both invite you to the party. Merry Christmas!

Printed in the December 20, 2012 edition