Why did God create people? What was he thinking? People must be an endless discouragement to God. In Genesis, right before the flood, God regretted that he ever made people, yet something about Noah touched his heart. Maybe he didn’t regret making every single person. After the flood ended, God changed his mind. It is right there in the book of Genesis. I didn’t make this up. God said exactly the same thing about people after the flood as before. He said that they were completely mixed up and always doing wrong. Yet he no longer wanted to destroy them.

 Noah and his family were just as prone to disappoint God as everybody else. Yet God did not strike them with lightning. He doesn’t strike anyone with lightning. He just goes on loving us.

 What is the problem? Satan, of course, is the agent of evil, the embodiment of pure evil, but if people had not been created with freedom to choose what they do, Satan would be powerless. God didn’t hardwire people to do the right thing every time, and that is Satan’s opportunity. A cynic might say that God got what was coming to him, because he got the consequences of our freedom.

 There are many ways in which this freedom works out in our lives. We choose to take what we want from the people who have it regardless of their wish to keep it. We lie, cheat, defraud, and hurt the people around us. We hurt people on purpose, because they have hurt us, or just because we can. However, that isn’t the only way we express our freedom.

 Every human being is born with potential to do great things. Not just morally great things. We are born with talents. Michelangelo and Picasso were born to draw and paint. They could have ignored their talent or they could have done what they did – develop their talent. George Washington was born to be a leader of men. He could have sat in peace on his estate, but he chose to be a leader. The development of Picasso’s art and Washington’s leadership must have made God very happy.

 The Jews believe that God loves it when people stand up and argue with God. I can see how that might be true, because I believe that God gave us minds to see choices, evaluate them, and then decide. When he sees us using our minds and our talents, I think God is pleased.

 What confuses us about God is the fact that he is omnipotent at the same time that we are free. We think both things cannot be true at the same time. This paradox confuses us. Because humans believe that both things cannot possibly be true, humans choose to believe that God is limited in some way. We can clearly see that we have the freedom to choose, and we say things like, “You got yourself into this mess, and you can jolly well get yourself out of it.” On the other hand, after exercising our complete freedom to choose, when we find ourselves in messes, we pray “Help me, help me, help me,” and think God is a big failure when he doesn’t jump in and fix things.

 Books have been written on this subject. I can’t best any of them. I have a single concern in bringing up this issue. I believe that God had good reasons for giving us freedom. I believe that God wants us to relate to him, and a relationship requires freedom for both parties. If we were not free to choose the relationship, then we would be slaves or robots. God rejoices in our freedom. In some ways, he relates to us the way a parent relates to a child learning to play the piano. When that child sits down at the very first recital and plays a really simple piece, the parent does not confuse that with the performance of a concerto, but the parent truly and completely rejoices in the child’s development of the gift. Years later, when the child has matured with the gift, the parent rejoices to hear a mature performance, and the parent equally rejoices that the child has found the right outlet for that talent whether it turns out to be in concert or in a classroom or in composition.

 God feels that way about each of us. He gifts us with the potential. He sets us down in the world with all sorts of choices before us. He works within us and around us to nurture our talents, our personalities, and our character. The unique person each of us becomes is a mix of all those opportunities shaped by our choices over and over. I think that God is extremely pleased when we become what he created us to be, and I think he is delighted and surprised in many ways, because of the unique outcome in each person.

 Can God be surprised? I think so. To say so, of course, throws me into another paradox. If God knows everything at all times, how can anyone surprise him? How can it even be said that we choose anything if he knows everything already? This mental exercise is tedious. Relationship with God is not tedious. I think God is truly delighted like any parent when we grow and mature using the talents and personality with which he gifted us at conception. I choose to believe that because he does not micromanage our choices, he also does not limit his delight in our growth by saying, “I knew that all the time.”

 I can’t comprehend how God is God at all. The best I can do is spend time in his presence and try to live by his guidance. I know I have made some bad choices, so I know he doesn’t prevent that. I know I have made some good choices, and I know he is pleased with them. As I grow and mature in my relationship with God, I am learning to see facets of his personality and character that I never knew before. In this growing relationship, I sense that he delights in my growth as if he didn’t know with certainty what I would do. I simply don’t worry about what he foreknows when I meet and beat a big challenge, because I am so happy. I know I don’t do it alone, and I experience God’s delight in both my choices and my growth.

 I would rather relate to God as my heavenly father, the mysterious Three in One, who loves me and blesses me than try to analyze him to death. I know people who try to analyze me, too, and I don’t much like it. I do like the experience of growing in faith and developing my talents in the loving, nurturing presence and power of the Holy Spirit. I know that I was known before I was conceived, but I love being God’s kid and surprising him every once in a while as I try to become what he always wanted me to be. It isn’t all up to me, but I really do get to choose, and he really does get to rejoice when I do it right.

 My cell phone service provider is Virgin Mobile. When I have any occasion to call customer service, I am greeted by a recording that says, “Virgin Mobile customers, you rule!” I like that greeting. It predisposes me to believe that someone will actually listen to my problem and help me solve it.

Most of us like the feeling that people defer to us. It is the cardinal principle of customer service, in fact, to make customers believe that it is all about them. The greatest challenge of any part of public relations, including customer service, is to make it appear that the only rule is, “The customer is always right,” while enforcing company policy in ways that drive profits.

God doesn’t need profits. In fact, he doesn’t need anything at all. When we understand this truth about God, we are prepared to understand his first rule for everyone: “You shall have no other gods.” [Exodus 20:3] This rule sounds pretty arrogant and exclusive, but like all the other Ten Commandments, when you understand it, it rocks!

Job was a man who had been faithful to God all his life. At one time, he was the richest man in his country. He had a wife, seven sons and three daughters. One day, thieves stole all Job’s wealth, and his children all died in a freak windstorm. All these things happened in one day! Shortly thereafter Job was struck by a disease that covered his body with boils. He was so miserable that his wife suggested he curse God and die. She thought God was vindictive because he wanted everyone to worship him and abandon all the other gods. She obviously expected that when Job cursed God, God would strike him dead. Under the circumstances she thought being dead would be better than being alive.

As if his wife were not discouraging enough, Job was visited by three men claiming to be his friends. They spent hours trying to persuade Job to confess what he had done to deserve all this tragedy. I have had friends like this. When I lost a job for no reason I could discern, a friend tried to tell me that my whole problem was a lack of faith. She assured me that if I had simply had more faith, God would not have let this happen. It was all my fault! Job’s friends preached that same sermon.

My friend and Job’s friends were really saying that money and property are gods. They preached that if you have money and property, you have your god. If money and property depart, your god has abandoned you. You should feel very hurt if money and property keep company with other people and not with you. People who use lies and fraud to take money from others and gather it to themselves demonstrate that money is their god. They give all their allegiance to money. Government can establish state gods of money and property. You see it when government takes money and property from those who have it and gives it to those who don’t. It should surprise nobody when such government leaders skim money and property off for themselves as it passes through the government’s hand, because money and property are their gods.

There are other gods. Some people cling to intellectual achievement. Others worship their own families. Some sacrifice everything to the god “popularity” or “celebrity” or “prestige.” You can tell when someone worships a god. If a person worships popularity, that person will wear clothes she hates and put up with people she despises in order to be popular.  People expect to give up something for a god, but they expect to get something, too. Most people act as if worship were half of a transaction akin to buying underwear; they pay their god worship and praise, and the god dispenses all their heart’s desires.

Job recognized that everything he possessed was God’s gift. In fact, on the day he lost his wealth and his children, his first reaction was to worship God and acknowledge that everything he ever had possessed was always God’s.

The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.    Job 1:21

However, when loss of health followed loss of wealth and family, even Job wondered what was going on. He cried out,

Oh, that I knew where I might find him,that I might come even to his dwelling? I would lay my case before him, and fill my mouth with arguments. I would learn what he would answer me, and understand what he would say to me.  Job 23:3-5

God didn’t speak in support of Job’s friends. God did answer Job. God’s answer to Job is his answer to each of us who wonders why God is so selfish, wanting all the worship and praise for himself. God said,

Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements – surely you know! 

Later God said,

Where is the way to the dwelling of light, and where is the place of darkness, that you may take it to its territory and that you may discern the paths to its home? Job 32:4-5, 19-20

In other words, God pointed out to Job that only the creator of all things, seen and unseen, knows the answers to these questions. Who deserves our worship and praise more than the one who was able to say the word “Light!” and light came into being? He doesn’t owe us anything. We owe him everything.

After that, God told Job’s friends that they needed to ask Job to pray for them, because they had not spoken properly about God as Job did. They had consistently suggested that Job make up for his mistake, whatever it was, in order to manipulate God into returning all his property. Instead, Job completely let go of his ownership of the property and laid himself before God. Instead of trying to manipulate God, Job asked to get to know Him.

Job honored God when he cried out, “I would learn what he would answer me, and understand what he would say to me.” He asked for what God wanted – relationship. He showed respect for God and promised to listen to God. Job did not scorn God for failing to do what he (Job)  wanted. Instead he humbled himself and promised to listen to what God said to him.

Paul said it another way. He was preaching in Athens two thousand years ago, explaining to Greeks who served a multitude of gods why they should worship the God who created all things. He said, “The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things. …In him we live and move and have our being.” Acts 17:24-25, 28

In other words, all that Hubble stuff? God did that. Mount Everest and Antarctica? DNA and mitochondria? Whales and orangutans? Mushrooms and amoebae? God did it all. There is nothing greater than God. All the other little gods are merely dolls. Fakes. We cannot trust them, we cannot turn to them for help, and we cannot be blessed by them. They are complete frauds.

Why does God demand complete, single-minded faith and worship? Because he is God. He made everything, he knows how it all works, and he is in charge. God rules! That’s all there is to say about that.

Cosmology is a fascinating field of study. We all want to know how the universe came to be, and we want to know how we humans fit into the big picture. Currently in the US, this topic has become an important issue for education. Everyone wants children to learn about the universe, but the questions about its origin and purpose have so many different answers that it has become a major problem in the content of science textbooks.

Positions on this contentious topic fall generally into three categories: 1 – those who believe that the universe was created by God, 2 – those who believe the universe must have been designed by someone greater than us, and 3 – those who believe the universe exists by chance, subject to laws we are only beginning to discover.

There is a deep gulf between a conviction that we are created by God Almighty who loves us and a contention that something greater than ourselves designed the universe. I honor people who research the universe and conclude that it did not happen by chance. They demonstrate honesty in their work that is refreshing. I actually do not expect science to discover God, only his work.

There is an even deeper gulf between a belief that the universe was created by God and a belief that the universe occurred by chance as the outcome of natural law. Many, but not all, who prefer to believe that natural law explains everything, doubt or actively reject the concept of God. It is very difficult for people who believe there is a God who created everything to talk with people who reject the existence of any god at all.

Quite naturally, people who believe in God prefer that their children not be taught that the universe exists by chance. Just as naturally, people who do not believe in God prefer that their children not be taught what they consider to be a fairytale. When this conversation is stirred into a political stew flavored with differences over the meaning of the term “separation of church and state” the resulting discourse becomes extremely heated.

I am grateful to live in a country where this conversation in all its variations can take place. In China, the state determines what is taught in the schools, and the state registers the religions that are considered legal. The state prints the school textbooks, and the state prints the religious books. In China, scientists research what the state allows and publish what the state approves. In the USA, we have a maelstrom of ideas and opinions and discussions and arguments.

I have a position on this subject. I believe that God created the universe and everything in it. I believe that he created me, as he created all other human beings. I believe that God wants to live in relationship with human beings, including me. I don’t believe that God wound up the universe and left it to run unattended; rather, I believe he is actively involved in all that happens.

I do, however, differ with many of my fellow Christians when it comes to my concerns about the science textbooks in schools. I am not as worried about the content of those textbooks as some are, because I am the product of a science education that never suggested for a minute that God acted in the universe or that people were created by God. Despite this fact, I have never doubted that God created the cosmos or me.

My Christian faith was nurtured and instructed at the direction of my parents. They believed that God created the world, and when I went to church, that is what I was taught. My faith was not shaken by the fact that the school did not teach me about God, because I learned at home that there are many people who do not believe.

Here is the important point: the public schools are not responsible for teaching our children what to believe about God; that supremely important job is the responsibility of parents. As a Christian, I feel obligated to do what I can do to participate in the redemption of society. As a citizen and a Christian I want to speak and act to assure that civic law embodies a high moral standard. Likewise, I want our schools to deliver the best possible education to our children. However, I will never abdicate the responsibility for my children’s growth in Christian faith. That is my job. The schools may teach the latest scientific discovery about the behavior of particles in the picoseconds after the Big Bang, but that teaching does not negate or invalidate faith that God created the universe.

Parents ought to care what their children learn in school, but they need not fear it. Parents who exercise their responsibility to bring up their own children in the faith will be able to address any issues that originate in the schools. We parents have a huge responsibility to our children and to our God. If we ourselves live out our faith in the God who created all things, our children are not likely to grow up believing anything else.

For more information about me, or about Christian faith, visit www.katherineharms.com.