One Monk's Journey Through Faith

I was up tonight thinking about redemption. When our race was lost in darkness and we had turned our backs on God, he gave a lot for us. His sweat when he traveled across the terrain of Palestine on foot in those sandals they wore back then. Sand got between his toes and made his feet horribly stinky (and his toenails probably were not a pretty sight, either). His tears at Gethsemane, and on numerous other occasions. And of course his blood on the cross.

God could have said "damn you all" and just turned to his angels. Or he could have made a new Eden on Mars. But he didn't. It's so much easier to just move on with your life and pretend the person you have an issue with doesn't exist. That's what everyone out in the world does, and in our weakness sometimes we Christians too will imitate that.

But it's not what God did. Instead, he adopted human form. God changed a part of his own substance into the substance of his creation in order to save that creation. Not just did God give blood, sweat, and tears for us, but even to lower himself enough to HAVE flesh and blood is saying something.

What if you were a brilliant scientist and you created a bunch of sentient robots? Say they malfunctioned by being disobedient, and you wanted to hit the remote button that activates the self-destruct mechanism on all of them at once.

If for some reason beyond explanation you could change their programming by CUTTING OFF your arm and taking a cyborg graft, would you do it to save them? They are lesser beings - mere nuts and bolts. They wear and tear and require maintenance. Would you sacrifice part of your humanity for an incomparably lesser race that could simply be rebuilt from scratch? Would you make it so you required maintenance and a battery?

If you told your apprentices that you were going to take a metal arm graft, they'd object: "They're ONLY nuts and bolts!" Y'know, maybe some of God's angels said we were only flesh and blood. At one point, we were less than that even - just red dirt. God lowered himself by incorporating human nature into part of His being to save us when 99.9% of us didn't even care to ask for redemption.

The truth is, the creation cannot even hold a candle in comparison to its creator. Any robot we could make today is of very little worth compared to us ourselves. Inferior beings not even worthy to be called "alive." And if that is how far the gap is between us and OUR creations, think of how far we are from the dignity of our Creator! And yet He sacrificed Himself for us. He did not destroy us, but became one of us at the expense of His pride as an immaterial being above the need of sustenance. He did so much for us and loved us enough to incorporate us into His nature, though it was so far from His own.

I hope my 5:30 rambling is of some use to somebody. The point of this story is that God spared no possible expense in giving forgiveness and second chances to those who didn't even ask for it ahead of time. There are two ways I hope this will be applied:
1. I hope you'll see God in a clearer light as to why He did not consider it robbery (of His unique deity nature) [Phil 2:6, KJV] to take on our nature of flesh and blood. One more reason to appreciate and worship Him.
2. I hope, in your attempt to emulate His nature and "change your programming," you will have the same zeal and eagerness to patch things up with those who are at odds with you whenever you can, regardless of the reason you don't get along and not let sweat, tears, or even blood deter you from saving a friendship or family bond - or any lost soul.

The moment we walk away from redemption is the moment we deny the very principle by which we are saved.