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If we have been created by a good and personal God, then the conclusion may be drawn that this creator also wants to connect with us from his deepest being. We have then not come into being as coincidences of fate, as toys of an evil genius, not even as actors in a sadistic spectacle. No, then we should expect to live in the best possible world in which freedom of choice exists, where that is immediately the containment God has given Himself. A reason for "the state of our being" can therefore be found in this freedom of choice. It is our will, although no free will. After all, we live simultaneously in complete dependence. We cannot give ourselves life, but we can appropriate life. What remains is to choose. The desire to create, to share of, in and through His love, to be in connection with His creature, is why we are.
From that intense relationship between creator and creature, he wants to draw man to himself with cords of love.7 If indeed the goal of Christianity has always been to bring creator and creature into freedom and deep union, the highest goal is not to sanctify, but to reunite. Sanctification as a means of reunification. About the Creator's desire to connect with man, I was particularly struck once the following lore, described by Martin Buber.
Adam hides to avoid accountability, to avoid accountability for his life. This is how every man hides himself. Man cannot hide from God's eye, but hides from himself. In the midst of this situation, God's question ("Adam, where are you?") falls. It wants to awaken man, it wants to destroy his hiding place, it wants to show him where he has ended up, it wants to awaken in him the powerful will, to find a way out.8
- This blog is part of a short series: Have to choose
Endnotes
7. As described between God and the people of Israel in Hosea 11.
8. The way of man, M. Buber
