"And the Lord regretted that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him to His heart”. Genesis 6:6
When the Lord created this world He saw that it was good and He was pleased with it. One of the most often overlooked reasons why God created the world and humans was because of love. The love that He shared in the triune God, He wanted to share with others. Jesus mentions the love that He shared with the Father before creation.
“Father I want those who you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.” John 17:24
The very essence of God is love. “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” 1 John 4:8
When we arrive at Genesis 6, we see how humankind messed up and spurned God’s love so much so that He was grieved in His heart.
The same is true for us as God’s image bearers. The reason why we grieve is because we first loved. We grieve for what has happened to our son Nathanael because we love him dearly. When someone loses a loved one, they grieve because they loved them with great depth.
We grieve when our children mess up and make the wrong choices. God was the same and He still grieves when we turn our back on Him and His gift of love at the cross.
Grieving not only helps us to cope with loss but it is also a sure sign that we have and do love. If we see in scripture that God grieves, then let us not feel bad about our grieving which may stay with us always - in fact someone has said that grief doesn’t lessen but instead our lives grow around the grief.
Picture courtesy of https://www.sueryder.org/ growing around grief.
God could eliminate grief in our lives altogether if He desires, but when we are faced with difficulties and loss that is when God walks closest, through it with us. He is the God who suffers and grieves both with us and for us.
Our heavenly Father grieves for us in our brokenness and desires for us to be whole and complete, in a place where we can share in and experience His love without any hindrance. As an earthly father, I grieve for our son who is broken because he is not what he was and that hurts deeply. It hurts because I love him. God hurts because He loves us.
This understanding of the depth of God’s love enables us to read John 3:16 in a new light, with that aspect in mind:
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
Prayer - Lord please forgive us when we grieve Your heart. We thank You that You love us and desire for us to walk in Your ways and share in the love that You, the triune God, shared before You created anything. Thank You that You have done so much for us in sending Christ to make that possible for all. Amen
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