“You think you could be happy hear?” – The Beast
“Can anybody be happy if they aren’t free?” - Beauty
“You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love.” – Galatians 5:13, NIV
There is YouTube-famous influencer called Terra Green who creates his own worlds out of glass terrariums. Viewers watch as he creates a mini ecosystem, and watches it thrive from above. Then, to keep it interesting, he’ll add insects, rainstorms and even surprise predators and watch the drama unfold. What underpins his enduring popularity is something subtle. Within that small glass rectangle, he has complete control. It might just be a tiny little microcosm, but within that space, he has absolute authority. Nothing happens outside of his knowledge and planning. When you think about it like that, it’s easy to see the appeal of these popular videos. This is particularly true when we feel our own lives are so vastly outside of our control.
We can control effort, but we cannot control outcome. We have free will over our own feelings, but not those of our loved ones. And even if we’ve raised them the best we can, our children will make their own decisions, and this starts as soon as they learn the word, “no”.
It makes me wonder, if we had the opportunity, would we have given our own creation free will? It’s very risky. The God of our world put 7 days worth of His infinite time into creating us in His own image and then He just…set us free. Free to love Him, or free to wander off. Or free to wander off, change our minds and come back to love Him. Free to hurt ourselves or each other. The possibilities for both elation and devastation are infinite. What would we choose? How would it intertwine with each other’s choices?
And what if the stakes were even higher? What if giving our creation free will meant that we would have to humble ourselves to their level, live in their world, and someday sacrifice ourselves, just to offer them an invitation?
Jesus set out to do what no other “deity” had done before – to live among us. He didn’t demand our love through threats and holy lightening bolts, but instead shared it by example. That’s a huge break from the posture of standing over your creation, amused by the perils and obstacles they have to withstand.
Of course, there was a good reason. As the statement goes, “If you can’t say no, you can’t really say yes.” In order for us to choose God, there had to be a second option; another door we could walk through. And this choice is how we can actually be in an authentic relationship with Jesus. It would have been much easier, and even safer, to create a race of robots. But real love has to be accompanied by choice. And as we’ve heard, “If you love something, set it free”. – Anonymous.
“You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love.” – Galatians 5:13, NIV