An Unlimited Love

An Unlimited Love

9/25/13

Ever wonder how hard it is to be a true father?  It is easy to contribute to the process of life but it is more difficult to be a part of that life in which guides and protects at all times yet allowing the creations to make their own choices.  We as humans see things on a limited basis whereas our heavenly father sees the complete picture of not only our present but our future as well.  How many times have we placed these facts into our hindbrains and allowed selfish ways to determine our children’s paths.  We trod upon this earthly rock in order to see fit for our own existence but how do we compare to the love that God has for His children in comparison.

Being a human I am automatically limited to what I can say or do in this life.  AS I have studied the human body for almost three decades now I have come to the conclusion that our physical forms were uniquely created in such a manner to which they should last forever, yet some inhibiting quality prevents us from obtaining this function.  My decisions and actions are based upon this limiting fact as well yet I try to understand the decisions that other humans make in order to provide a long as possible life.  The examples I am going to use in this article are very limiting but they are the only human ones that I can use that bring into light about how much more God loves us and wishes to guide our lives for a long and complete life.  But as my examples are given one will find that they fall way short in comparison to what God has provided for us.

I am almost forty six years old now and I have to admit that I have had a pretty good life.  My parents provided me with a good place to live, taught me to respect life and to be honest with everyone that I come in contact with, be decent with the planet and know that God loves me with every ounce of His heart.  There is nothing wrong with these concepts and in truth they are the core foundation that not only I enjoy but what the founding fathers of this country instilled into our lives through their hard work, sweat and blood while writing the beginnings of this great nation.  However, being in my forties that would mean that I had to be a teenager some time in my past and if one does the math they will quickly come to realize that this is a fact.

The personal example I am going to give occurred while my family and I were living in Hobbs, New Mexico.  There are many details about this specific incident that I am not going to go into but be aware that while this scene was unfolding a contract had been taken out for my life which I did not know about at the time, but my parents did however.  It was nothing special, just a voluntary gesture on my part to go to the store for mom to get a few items that she wanted.  There are not many parents in the USA that would say no to a teenager who actually wanted to do a small errand for them without having a huge argument beforehand.  I had volunteered to go and gladly waited for the few items to be mentioned and as soon as they were received I was out the door and headed for the car.  All was great and as I pulled out from the curb I headed in the direction of the store.

Now, being a normal teenager I just had to take the scenic route to the store and see who was wandering around the town so it actually took a few minutes for me to arrive as my destination.  As I stated above there had been a contract out for my life and it was quite well known that if anyone had the opportunity that they should complete the task and since my parents knew this they became suspicious about things fairly quickly and decided to tail me just to make sure I was not in any danger.  Of course I had no idea about the contract nor did I have a clue that mom and dad were following me either so it would be an awkward setting when our eyes met.

After a few trips around the drag of the town, I finally decided that I should complete my errand and go to the store as my mother wished.  I took the shortest route that I knew, from the place that I really had no business being in, to get to the store.  I pulled into the parking lot and parked as close to the store entrance as possible.  I got out and ritualistically locked the car door and began to walk towards the entrance.  Being a typical teenager my eyes were focused on the cars within the parking lot and I was trying to see if there was anyone there that I knew, in other words I really was not paying too much attention to my immediate surroundings on a security level.

As I continued my stroll towards the store I noticed a car that was coming up from behind so I moved out of the center of its path and allowed it to pass on my left.  As the car passed I noticed one of my parents in the passenger seat looking at me as they slowly passed by.  The car suddenly stopped and the window rolled down and I was asked if I was ok and of course my mad and embarrassed self curtly responded with a “yes.”  The window rolled back up and the car continued its path towards the entrance of the store and then made a turn towards the exit of the parking lot.  I momentarily stopped my course towards the store and watched as my parent’s car made its way out of the parking lot and headed back towards my house.

At this time I was hopping mad and had no idea why my parents were following me but all I could care about at that moment was that they had no trust in me to complete a simple task that they had given me, plus the fact that I had even volunteered to do this for them.  I felt violated, cheated and controlled but what I did not know was the real reason why they were concerned for my safety.  I was fuming in the moment and as soon as the tail lights had disappeared I went inside the store and completed the task and beat-fleeted it back to the house to release my anger at them and then to ignore their reasons why they were “spying” on me.

At this time my parents had no choice but to tell me a little bit about what they had been warned concerning my life.  They wanted to protect me from this information as long as possible and with any luck it never has to be made known to my ears.  But the perfect scenario had just burst and some disturbing information had to be detailed.  I really did not fully comprehend the severity of the situation for my eyes only had their focus upon living and having fun with as many people as I possibly could yet I did understand what was spoken to me but I still fought the truth and was a bit angry for them following me; a typical response to an stubborn and ignorant teenager.

My limited knowledge of my surroundings and the reality of these surroundings had a direct effect on my entire family until the day that we left that town.  But it was not until I fully comprehended what was occurring around me that I figured out that my parents were only trying to keep me safe and for me to have a long life.  And it was not until I stopped being so focused upon my wants that I realized the entire story about that time and just how close I came to my life ending that year.  The word had been written out for my life and my parents sensed something about this specific time in my life and at the time I did not like them for that but now that I understand about the responsibilities of being a parent I totally agree with their decision to follow me that night even though I was doing a good deed for them at that moment.

The roles are reversed in my second example of a limited nature as this example played out a couple of nights ago.  It was a typical Monday evening in Delta, Colorado in which my wife was working at her dispatch job and I was doing my best to relax for a while.  I read a bit and then surfed the net some but really did not have too many things planned in other words.  The girls had left at different times earlier that evening and were to meet at the local Monday evening youth service at around 7 pm.  Both girls were with friends and given the age differences between the two that meant one was walking and the other one was riding with a friend.

All was going great until about 7:15 pm when I had a thought to text my sixteen year old and ask her if she had made it to the meeting.  I got no response at that time which really did not mean too much to me since there have been numerous times that her mother and I have texted and received no immediate response.  So I waited for a few minutes and then gave her another text but the word I used in the second text was meant to grab her attention and when she would read the message she would understand the context.  I waited once again with no reply and after a few more moments I began to become a little miffed with what seemed like a no response of ignoring me.

The third text from my phone was sent and the same “no response” was received in return.  Now my anger turned into a sudden shock of fear so the next logical step was for me to call her phone in which I promptly did.  Her phone rang and then went to her voice mail and my fear then turned to sheer fright and the thought of something amiss entered into my mind.  I went upstairs to speak to my wife and to ask her if she had heard anything from our sixteen year old and when she replied with “no” my heart decided to jump a little bit higher in my throat.

My wife then said she would try and call her and it too provided with a session to the voice mail message.  I then said that I was headed to the place where the youth meeting was located and for my wife to call the friend that our sixteen year old was with when she left our house.  I shut the door behind me and mixed emotions swelled up within me one of anger and one of fright.  At that moment I had no idea which one was in first place inside me but the only thing that mattered to me was finding her safe and hopefully where she was supposed to be at.

As I got into the car and stared the engine I said a quick prayer for my daughter’s safety.  If her life was in danger I had not much confidence with those simple words but it was all I had at that moment; that is on the praying side of the issue.  If my daughter was not where she said she would be there would be prayers sent up to heaven but it would have been from a different nature and tone; one of mercy coming from an irate father.  As I pulled out of the driveway and headed towards the place where the youth meeting was being held my phone rang and it was my wife with some information concerning my daughter’s whereabouts.  The information was not specific but it the girl stated that my daughter was at the youth meeting and that our other daughter was there as well.  So I had my wife text the girl that provided us with the information and told her to inform my daughter to meet me outside of the meeting house. 

As I approached the meeting place I received another phone call stating that the girl with the information had left the youth meeting due to a personal reason and that she had left my daughter there and was not with her.  This raised my parental suspicions higher and I was more determined to find out what was going on when I pulled up in front of the youth house.  I parked the car by the mailbox and began to look for any signs of my two daughters.  The kids were all headed inside to begin the service so my view of everyone was limited, but I saw no daughter of mine there.

As the music began to protrude from the garage area of the house I began to calm down a bit since a few minutes had passed without any cars passing by.  For I knew that if my daughter had a brain and was not there at the house she would eventually arrive there with some type of story but this never occurred because both of my daughters were actually inside and listening to the service as they said they were.  This was confirmed when my sixteen year old called me as she was walking out of the front door after the short service was completed.  I felt kind of stupid about the entire situation and I did not mention to them about my worries and concerns with them not responding to the texts and calls.  I was just relieved to see their faces walking towards the car.

The purpose of God’s love for us is directly related to these two examples that I have provided above, with one specific detail that separates them at the same time.  Where the two examples prove that the timing and actions of humans are of a current manner and the future cannot be revealed until the future becomes the present.  However, God has a different view and a relevant in all areas of our life since He is eternal, everlasting and all knowing.  While this concept is hard for us to comprehend God has left us with an excellent example of His knowledge concerning our lives.

God understands and has created within us the ability to choose, and this gift of choice can either make or break us depending upon which choice we make at that time.  That is why God has given us the Bible in order that we may understand the situations that we humans place ourselves in and how and why things occur within our lives after those choices have been made.  Where we cannot accurately predict every movement that we will make we can have knowledge of what might come our way if we decide one way or the other.  This pathway of choice can be kept on a personal level or it can be on the level of a community or even a nation.  Since we are all created equal and have the same opportunities in life all levels of choices are within our grasp and thus are subject for our taking.  Therefore, this means that all consequences are just and acceptable because everything has to be balanced on all sides of the equation.

God gave us examples in the Bible on every level.  God would be labeled as punitive if the Bible only contained stories and examples of bad results of human actions.  On the other hand God would be labeled as a sugar daddy if only stories with happy endings would be present within the contents of the Bible.  Since both sides of the coin is laid out for us to read about this means that the Bible and the people that are represented within these stories represent the situations of everyday life of a human being, which automatically makes the case for the Bible being relevant for us today.

God could not have made it any easier for us to follow these examples but as humans we have distorted these examples and have made them out to be fairy tales and watered them down enough to warrant them irrelevant. God can leave this type of human history book because He created us and He understands what the human mind and heart are capable of completing.  The Bible would have so many inconsistencies about human life if God was not the creator of all things.  The Bible would be labeled as a fraud if all sides of the issues of life were not addressed or if it did not have a central idea with a final outcome, all wrapped up into one end choice of the center pieces of creation.

The Bible would also be deemed as manipulative to humans if it included every detail about the people that were being portrayed in the stories within its contents.   The freedom of choice about life and everything that it has to offer would be skewed and forced upon our hearts in order to make the appropriate decision all the time.  God knew what He was doing by giving us certain details and leaving out others so that we can use the gifts of thought to make the choices for our lives.  Only a God who is eternal and all knowing could make such a work even while it was being written by the created centerpieces themselves.  This method of providing examples is brilliant above all other methods of examples; a pure example of a creator who has made a covenant of life with us as part of His unlimited love.

God would not write the perfect example and then leave out the final detail about the results of the choices that humans have made.  God understands the progressive mind and heart that He has placed within us and He fully comprehends what the choices that we make have upon our lives.  It would b a travesty if and a lie if He did not include the final results.  But it is good to know that we have not made it to those final results yet however, if we continue the course that we are presently accepting another step will be taken in bringing those final results into play.

It is our responsibility to study God’s Word and to think about what occurred in those people’s lives.  From the insane laws that some of the people passed to the killing of their own children must be thought about with a pure and objective heart so that the truth about those choices can be made without prejudice.  It is a fact that God will honor His creative gift of choice but let it be known that whatever comes our way is not God’s fault but a result of the choices that we humans have made.  We must always keep in mind to what is at stake and if we try to protect our children by following them in a car then why would an all knowing God provide any less for His children?

A common factor is that the world will offer every side of the issues which include the best and worst of these sides.  We still have the opportunity to go through life with some help and guidance.  Yet the world has commanded us to abandon this guidance and to forego with its plans for our lives.  The world cries for the Bible to become irrelevant and useless but God says that His Word is more relevant today than it ever has been.  While it is true that humans cannot understand the future we do have the ability to understand human behavior by the choices that we as mankind have made in the past.  The world will eventually shut this option down and declare it obsolete and threaten its usage as a traitor to the present.  That is why it is so vital to understand this concept because the choices of man will play out according to God’s knowledge of humanity.  It is time for us to repent and to allow God to restore in us the true knowledge and ways of His Word.  This is the only way that we can delay our complete downfall and to provide a true and reasonable way out of our convoluted ways.  The world has a contract out for your life and the information provided in the Word of God can overturn this contract.  The Bible is a book of guidance and not of a punitive or controlling nature.  I challenge you to open the Bible and to read it with these eyes and not the condemning ones of our past.

DLB