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Why does God do it? Why does God put up with us?

We are some of the worst friends, daughters, sons, brothers, sisters.  We're so cynical and skeptical, that if someone is being "too nice" to us, we get suspicious that they want something from us.  We ask, "why is this person being so nice? I wonder what she wants?"  We can't fathom that someone would be extremely nice to us without having some type of agenda.  I think a lot of us look at God with that same sideways skepticism.

Like, okay, so He sent His son to die on a cross for my sins, so that I might be saved.  And all He wants from me is to accept His salvation and allow Him to come into my heart?

"But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in our transgressions - it is by grace you have been saved.  And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus." Ephesians 2:4.  Whew!  That's a lot to take in, even for me, and I'm saved by that grace.

Even I read about the riches of my inheritance and think, 'Really, God, all that for me?  You love me that much? You did all of this work of reconciling me back to yourself, showing kindness to me in Christ Jesus, for your good pleasure?'  It's hard to believe.  And perhaps, we don't connect with God, because we can't relate to that kind of love.  We don't understand that we can reject someone, and they would love us anyway.  Since we don't operate in that kind of love, we find it hard to believe that what God offers is real.  Stranger yet, this love cannot be earned.  It can only be freely received.  Scratching my head.  But just because God is beyond our understanding, doesn't mean He has to be beyond our accepting.

Remember when you were a kid and you'd ask your parents if you could go somewhere with your friends, and your mom or dad told you, 'No!'  And when you'd ask, 'why not,' she/he would tell you, 'Because I said so.'  Period.  And that was the end of it.  That was the entire explanation.  And if you pushed for more answers, you would surely not like the outcome.  You didn't understand it, but you had to accept it.  So, here you are, 15 years later, still wanting an answer as to 'why' from a Heavenly Father, too good to be true, too kind to be believable, too merciful to be understood.  But the response has not changed. 'Because I said so,' declares God.  Now accept it.

Why does God put up with us? Why, as we reject Him and refuse to accept Him into our lives, does He persist?  Simply because He loves us.  You may not know that kind of love in your relationships today.  You may not be familiar with a love that great.  But it looks like this...Christ stretched out on a cross.  And this love is very, very real.

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