My daughter loves animals more than anyone I know. One day, I was encouraging her to make some human friends (she has enough animals), and I was asking why she doesn't try harder to make friends. She has a couple of friends, and possibly one good friend. She is quite content with not having many friends. My husband is the same way. I, on the other hand, can be quite extroverted and thrive off relationships with other people.
I have a love/hate relationship with people, though.
I want to love people. I want to see the best in people, despite their outward appearances. I have often found the best, softest and most loving hearts inside of the most outwardly disheveled and gnarly people. I have learned not to judge a book by its cover.
It's the people who look the best on the outside (sometimes) that truly scare me. Although they look friendly enough, they are like ravenous wolves on the inside. I always keep one eye on my six when spending time with these people. You just never know when they might turn on you and eat you for lunch.
Back to my conversation with my daughter...I asked her why she likes spending time with animals more than making strong relationships with people. She said, "Animals love me unconditionally. People are just harder to get along with."
Amen to that, sister.
As any good mother would do, I encouraged her to keep trying. "Don't give up on people," I said.
Don't stop trying.
Yes, people are a mess. If you look back in the Bible stories of old, people have always been that way--since the Garden of Eden and the incident with the serpent. People have been evil.
Lately, I have been reading the Bible in a new way. I am reading the Bible chronologically, starting at Genesis, and then also reading my way backwards from Revelation at the same time. I am seeing the beginning and the end--at the same time. I believe this is how God sees the story. He sees the beginning, the end, and everything in between all at once. This is also how He sees our lives. He knows the beginning from the end, and every moment in between. He has a plan to prosper us through it all, and to give us a hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11).
As I read through the account of Noah building the ark (the other day), I saw people as God saw His own creation. It says that He was sorry that He had ever made humans. That is a very sad statement. People were so wicked in their hearts all the time that God was sad that He made them. Then, He did the most unthinkable thing...He sent a flood on the earth and killed people, animals and every living thing. He destroyed everything except a few people He had predetermined would change the world and live righteously. He chose Noah and his family to start over in the world, to be fruitful and multiply. If he had not saved Noah, we never would have come along, and Jesus never would have come to earth to save us. Some may think this would have been the best option. Even then, God still loved people. He wouldn't have saved anyone if He didn't.
I wonder how God views people today. I know He loves people. I know He desires us to live righteously, but now it's through accepting the sacrifice of Jesus, and his death and resurrection that we might live. People are wicked. People hate each other and kill each other, and seem to be evil in their thoughts all the time. People act like they are happy. They eat and drink and give their children in marriage, but what makes us any different from the people in the days before the flood?
God saved many more animals than humans in the ark. Humans were outnumbered by the animals, but immediately upon leaving the ark, God again gave men authority over the land and everything on it, even to eat the meat of the animals for food. God showed that He loved His greatest creation--humans. He was giving people a second chance.
God loves people. If God can love people despite their great wickedness, I pray that I might love them also this way--unconditionally.
After reading the account of Noah and the flood (and the ark), I went to dinner with my family. As we left the restaurant, I saw the most beautiful full double rainbow. It reached all the way up and across the sky. Its colors were absolutely radiant and glorious. I stopped in the parking lot and just gazed upon the glory of God's creation.
As I stared at the rainbows, God spoke into my heart and said, "Sarah, I send the rainbows so that I can remember the promise that I made to never flood the whole earth again. I am reminding myself of that promise."
Tears began to fill my eyes. He is truly the God of love. He is full of mercy, patient, slow to anger, full of grace.
I heard my husband calling me to get in the car. As I looked back into the sky once more, God spoke to me again. He said, "Sarah, if you wonder how much I love you, look at these double rainbows--they are a double portion of my grace."
I turned away and drove home, but I stared at the rainbows until they were gone. God is not flooding the earth again--even though man is exceedingly wicked--because He is pouring out a double portion of His grace instead.
Genesis 6:6 (KJV)
And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.
Psalm 86:15 (ESV)
But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.
Isaiah 54:9 (NLT)
Just as I swore in the time of Noah that I would never again let a flood cover the earth, so now I swear that I will never again be angry and punish you.
Genesis 9:8-17 (NASB)
Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying, "Now behold, I Myself do establish My covenant with you, and with your descendants after you; and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you; of all that comes out of the ark, even every beast of the earth. "I establish My covenant with you; and all flesh shall never again be cut off by the water of the flood, neither shall there again be a flood to destroy the earth." God said, "This is the sign of the covenant which I am making between Me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all successive generations; I set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth. "It shall come about, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow will be seen in the cloud, and I will remember My covenant, which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and never again shall the water become a flood to destroy all flesh. "When the bow is in the cloud, then I will look upon it, to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth." And God said to Noah, "This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth."
I have a love/hate relationship with people, though.
I want to love people. I want to see the best in people, despite their outward appearances. I have often found the best, softest and most loving hearts inside of the most outwardly disheveled and gnarly people. I have learned not to judge a book by its cover.
It's the people who look the best on the outside (sometimes) that truly scare me. Although they look friendly enough, they are like ravenous wolves on the inside. I always keep one eye on my six when spending time with these people. You just never know when they might turn on you and eat you for lunch.
Back to my conversation with my daughter...I asked her why she likes spending time with animals more than making strong relationships with people. She said, "Animals love me unconditionally. People are just harder to get along with."
Amen to that, sister.
As any good mother would do, I encouraged her to keep trying. "Don't give up on people," I said.
Don't stop trying.
Yes, people are a mess. If you look back in the Bible stories of old, people have always been that way--since the Garden of Eden and the incident with the serpent. People have been evil.
Lately, I have been reading the Bible in a new way. I am reading the Bible chronologically, starting at Genesis, and then also reading my way backwards from Revelation at the same time. I am seeing the beginning and the end--at the same time. I believe this is how God sees the story. He sees the beginning, the end, and everything in between all at once. This is also how He sees our lives. He knows the beginning from the end, and every moment in between. He has a plan to prosper us through it all, and to give us a hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11).
As I read through the account of Noah building the ark (the other day), I saw people as God saw His own creation. It says that He was sorry that He had ever made humans. That is a very sad statement. People were so wicked in their hearts all the time that God was sad that He made them. Then, He did the most unthinkable thing...He sent a flood on the earth and killed people, animals and every living thing. He destroyed everything except a few people He had predetermined would change the world and live righteously. He chose Noah and his family to start over in the world, to be fruitful and multiply. If he had not saved Noah, we never would have come along, and Jesus never would have come to earth to save us. Some may think this would have been the best option. Even then, God still loved people. He wouldn't have saved anyone if He didn't.
I wonder how God views people today. I know He loves people. I know He desires us to live righteously, but now it's through accepting the sacrifice of Jesus, and his death and resurrection that we might live. People are wicked. People hate each other and kill each other, and seem to be evil in their thoughts all the time. People act like they are happy. They eat and drink and give their children in marriage, but what makes us any different from the people in the days before the flood?
God saved many more animals than humans in the ark. Humans were outnumbered by the animals, but immediately upon leaving the ark, God again gave men authority over the land and everything on it, even to eat the meat of the animals for food. God showed that He loved His greatest creation--humans. He was giving people a second chance.
God loves people. If God can love people despite their great wickedness, I pray that I might love them also this way--unconditionally.
After reading the account of Noah and the flood (and the ark), I went to dinner with my family. As we left the restaurant, I saw the most beautiful full double rainbow. It reached all the way up and across the sky. Its colors were absolutely radiant and glorious. I stopped in the parking lot and just gazed upon the glory of God's creation.
As I stared at the rainbows, God spoke into my heart and said, "Sarah, I send the rainbows so that I can remember the promise that I made to never flood the whole earth again. I am reminding myself of that promise."
Tears began to fill my eyes. He is truly the God of love. He is full of mercy, patient, slow to anger, full of grace.
I heard my husband calling me to get in the car. As I looked back into the sky once more, God spoke to me again. He said, "Sarah, if you wonder how much I love you, look at these double rainbows--they are a double portion of my grace."
I turned away and drove home, but I stared at the rainbows until they were gone. God is not flooding the earth again--even though man is exceedingly wicked--because He is pouring out a double portion of His grace instead.
Genesis 6:6 (KJV)
And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.
Psalm 86:15 (ESV)
But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.
Isaiah 54:9 (NLT)
Just as I swore in the time of Noah that I would never again let a flood cover the earth, so now I swear that I will never again be angry and punish you.
Genesis 9:8-17 (NASB)
Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying, "Now behold, I Myself do establish My covenant with you, and with your descendants after you; and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you; of all that comes out of the ark, even every beast of the earth. "I establish My covenant with you; and all flesh shall never again be cut off by the water of the flood, neither shall there again be a flood to destroy the earth." God said, "This is the sign of the covenant which I am making between Me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all successive generations; I set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth. "It shall come about, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow will be seen in the cloud, and I will remember My covenant, which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and never again shall the water become a flood to destroy all flesh. "When the bow is in the cloud, then I will look upon it, to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth." And God said to Noah, "This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth."
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