By: Wendy Duckworth Vance
God does not need us. Does that shock you? Is there a place somewhere in the back of your mind where you think that without your worship God would cease to exist or lose influence in our world? After all, there are books and movies that espouse the idea that gods of any faith only have power or existence in our world as long as we offer worship. Let me erase that thought when it comes to Yeshua; He does not need you to exist or to carry out His plans. What He has planned from the foundation of the world will come to pass with or without us. No, He does not need us, He wants us, He wants a relationship with us.
You see, if all God wanted was praise and worship, He could have that. After all, the whole of creation reverberates with praise to the Lord. And this is not just something we say as believers. NASA has confirmed that stars make music as various gases pass through them. In fact, they state that the biggest stars sound like “tubas and double basses” and that small stars sound like “flutes” (Landau, 2018). But long before science told us that the universe sings, we already knew it, because Yeshua told us that if we would not praise Him, that created things would do so on our behalf. In Luke 19 beginning at verse 37, we read that Yeshua’s disciples began to praise Him and give glory to God for His presence. The religious leaders admonished Him that He should rebuke His followers for praising Him. Yeshua responds to this admonition by saying that if the people will not praise Him, the stones will cry out. The stones would cry out because the universe and all that is in it declare His glory. It, in a sense, was created for that purpose, to be the evidence of his authorship. But people on the other hand were created to be in relationship with God, with the free will to choose to praise Him or not. The universe, the plants, the animals, the stones do not have that free-will; they are simply created as a testament to His greatness, they cannot help but to praise Him.
In Genesis 3, we see that God comes to the garden to visit with Adam and Eve. We can, I think, safely assume that this was not a one time visit because the text states that they heard His footsteps and hid. Although, I suppose that it could be said that they knew it was Him because no one else was around and there could be some truth to it. But, I think, in reality they knew what His footsteps sounded like. You don’t know the sound of a person’s steps having heard them only once or twice, it is something you learn over time or learn by association. For example, when I was in high school, I would get to school early. This one teacher would come down the darkened hallway about the same time everyday; his footfall had a very distinct sound. After a couple weeks, I learned what his footsteps sounded like and I began to greet him each day. One day he stopped and asked how I knew it was him since I could not see his face in the
darkened hallway and at such a distance. He was one of my teachers, therefore, he was aware that I am visually impaired and it seemed that this ability to know it was him without really being able to see him, fascinated him. He even extended his question to ask if this was related to some type of compensatory sense due to my visual impairment. I explained to him that my hearing and other senses were no better, - it is simple association; he comes down the hallway about the same time and his footsteps had a very particular sound to which I had become accustomed. I think the same was probably true of Adam and Eve, they knew God’s footsteps because He came to visit regularly and they became familiar with His footsteps and His voice. Through all these visits/interactions, they had developed a relationship with Him. And look at the punishment after the fall, it was not just having to grow their own food and have pain in childbirth, they were cast out of his presence, no longer to have a relationship with Him.
At that moment, God could have washed His hands of us, left us to our own devices, left us adrift in the rapids of sin. He didn’t. He wanted a relationship with us so much that He put in motion the plan of salvation. He showed Adam and Eve how to make atonement so that their sins could be forgiven and restore that relationship. He showed us a shadow of what was to come, a foreshadowing of His plan to send the perfect sacrifice for atonement, Himself, in the form of Yeshua. You see, He loved us - you and me so much and wanted a restored relationship with us so much that He suffered; He took the punishment that we deserved so that we could be with Him for all eternity. He wants us - think about how wonderful that is - the Creator of the universe loves you so much that he would suffer for you while you were His in enemy. He could have wiped out everything and started over completely - not even left a remnant as in the case of Noah and his family. He could have created a new human without freewill who would mindlessly worship Him, just like those rocks that would cry out praise if we refused to do so. But He didn’t do that.
He continued to befriend various people throughout history. He continued to reveal through these people that relationship restoration is possible through the blood of the perfect Lamb, Yeshua. He continued to tell us that He wants us. He wants us to trust Him, love Him, rely on Him, to talk to Him as a friend, to take comfort in His presence, to live with Him as citizens of the new heaven and the new earth Today will you answer His call to love Him and to be in relationship with Him because He first loved us and gave Himself as our ransom? Will you take the seat at the table that He created for you to sit as His beloved, sought after child? He picked you, He loved you, He spread His arms out wide and waits to wrap you in the warmth of His embrace.
References
Landau, E. (2018, July 30). Symphony of stars: The science of stellar
sound waves. Exoplanet Exploration: Planets beyond Our Solar System.
-stellar-sound-waves/
Comments