God could have made us perfect. He could have, but He chose not to do so.
I believe God made us imperfect because we have a role to play in His divine plan.
God gave us choice, perhaps not so much to allow us the freedom to choose whether to follow Him, but rather to glorify Him when we do.
You see, I suspect there is little glory to God if we worship Him in the absence of free will.
I suspect there would have been relatively less glory to God if those who follow Christ had been compelled to do so by force and against their will.
How better to glorify God than to be given the choice whether to love and obey Him — and to choose to do so!
How better to glorify God than to trust Him in a world where trust is as elusive as fireflies on a warm, mid-summer night!
How better to glorify Him than to believe in the living Christ and in the Good News He proclaims!
The exercise of our free will to believe in Christ Jesus not only glorifies God, but it is a testament to His love for us. For it is only through God’s love, grace, and mercy, that we have the choice to know our Lord and have a meaningful relationship with Him.
“Ask, and you will be given what you ask for. Seek, and you will find, Knock and the door will be opened. For everyone who asks, receives. Anyone who seeks, finds. If only you will knock, the door will open. If a child asks his father for a loaf of bread, will he be given a stone instead? If he asks for fish, will he be given a poisonous snake? Of course not! And if you hard-hearted, sinful men know how to give good gifts to your children, won’t your Father in heaven even more certainly give good gifts to those who ask him for them?” Matthew 7:7-11
It is only through God’s love, grace, and mercy that the choice we make — whether to trust in God by believing in Christ — will we be given eternal life.
“For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son so that anyone who believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. ” John 3:16
Following Christ is not easy, but He is the only path to eternal life with God. Once found, He is the path we must follow to the end of our days. There will be challenges along the way designed to test our faith, arising from hatred for Jesus and hatred of those who follow Him. According to Jesus, “Everyone will hate you because you belong to me. But all of you who endure to the end shall be saved.” Matthew 10:22
And like the elusive firefly, the faith we need to endure to the end can be found. We have only to seek, ask, and knock and the door to will be opened — through Christ.
“Jesus told him, ‘I am the Way — yes, and the Truth and the Life. No one can get to the Father except by means of me. If you had known who I am, then you would have known who my Father is. From now on you know him — and have seen Him.” John 14: 6-7
Image of firefly by Ruito Ohgami. May be subject to copyright.
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