The World As It Once Was

Imagine a world that lacks so much of what our world has. This world doesn't know what pain is. Disease isn't even a known word. Neither children nor adults starve to death or even go hungry. There is no pollution. No one is physically or mentally disabled. There is no fear. There is no evil. There is no shame. There are no lies. There is no war. People in this world don't get hurt or hurt each other. They don't verbally, physically, sexually, spiritually, or emotionally abuse each other. Death is a concept to be discussed and warned against, but as a reality it does not exist.

Imagine a world that has in surpassing amounts what our world has in miniscule portions. Love primarily. People love one another deeply in thought, words, and action. Their relationships are pure, innocent, intimate, vulnerable, teeming with life. Joy fills every heart. People share everything they have and every part of their lives with each other. People sense and understand that they are creatures of infinite worth, and they treat others in light of that reality. People have work to do, but it is not exhausting, stifling, draining, stressful, or necessary for survival. The work they've been given is a part of the joyful, lifeful, and whole pattern of life.

This world is not absolutely perfect, but it is absolutely good. It sure would be wonderful to live in a world like that. Sure sucks that we don’t. Surely the infinite God could have come up with better than this - even better than the world we can imagine. It's kind of frustrating at times that the world we live in isn't like that. Frustrating is probably too light a term. Sometimes, it outright pisses us off that God created a world that is full of so many horrible, terrifying, distressing, heart-breaking events and realities; a world that is missing so much good. The problem with our anger is that it's not rightly placed.

God didn't create a world full of evil, pain, and death. The world God made is much like the one we imagined, but so much better. Our minds cannot reach to places of such wonder, to such goodness, to such holiness. It's easy to forget that the world we live in is not the one God created, but the one Satan perverted.

The world changed when people sinned. The entire makeup of the world became twisted and depraved. It's the natural result of people choosing evil - choosing that which is not of God. God created a world that could be corrupted because He created people that had a choice. He gave people power. He graciously granted them not only the capacity for the volition to choose God's way or their own, but also allowed their decisions to have powerful effects on the world around them. Love allows for painful screwups.

It's too easy to blame God for all the terrible things that exist in our world today. They are there because He created a world that honored humanity and that granted them the ability to choose. We chose death in forms of illness, relational separation, shame, hiding, pride, fear, bitterness, depression, meaninglessness, starvation, hoarding, and a great number of other forms. God's Love for us, Love that Redeems, is His motivation for blessing us with the choice to live in Him or in destruction. There is no compulsion or coercion in Love. The best world possible is one where humanity has the option to accept and give love, or to not. Love is the highest Virtue.