and/or

Grace & peace to you from God our Father 'and' the Lord Jesus Christ.

Funny how much weight there can be in the one little word: 'and'. The thought struck me one day that, while we say we believe that God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are one, trinity, identically the same, it seems to me, that on another level, a deeper level, the one we truly believe and base our lives on, we believe them to be different. The disciples asked Jesus to 'just show us the Father and then we'll believe' and Jesus scolded them.... 'how do you not know that if you've seen me, you've SEEN the Father??' Paul says in Colossians that Jesus is the EXACT representation of God the Father. Jesus was crucified for saying that he and the Father are one, declaring himself to be equal with God.

But, somewhere deep at the core of our beings, even though we say we believe that 'God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son...' we still believe that Jesus 'feels' differently toward us than God does. That Jesus loves us, and God is angry, volatile, unpredictable, impatient, violent, and full of 'ill will' toward us. The proverbial 'big stick' God. The human mind is an amazing thing in the way it can hold to two opposite things with equal tenacity. We have been 'taught' that God is love. That is the Sunday school answer, and it is the TRUTH. But that is not really what we believe. What we really believe is that we should stay under cover where God's concerned, because if we come out in the open, he'll squash us like a bug. It's what he 'wants' to do, and it's best to just stay out of his way.

So, is it possible for Jesus to 'feel' differently, to 'think' differently, to 'love' differently, to 'desire' differently, to 'will' differently than his Father, than the one he is 'one' with, the one he is the 'exact representation' of? Are God and Jesus not in perfect unity? Does Jesus 'will' one thing, and God another? Are they in conflict with each other?

It is easy to see where this question comes from. After all, Jesus SAVED us from God's WRATH. So there's no question that wrath exists. So, how do we resolve this question? It would be extremely presumptuous to think we could 'resolve' the complexities of an infinitely wise God in our own human wisdom, but, I'm gonna take my best shot.

If we go right back to the 'beginning', the garden of Eden, it is very clear what the 'will' of God was. It was perfection. It was provision. It was peace. It was innocence. It was health. It was relationship. It was friendship. It was walking in the garden in the cool of the evening. It was face to face. It was love, absent of wrath. It was also... free will. It was important to God that we be able to choose. It was his 'will' that we be able to choose. It was NOT his will that we eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

This utopia, I believe, represents the exact 'will' of God. It is his 'will' that we are not hungry, or cold, or in any way 'without', to provide for us. It is his 'will' that we be at peace with each other, and more importantly with HIM. It is his will that we be innocent before him, free from accusation, without spot or wrinkle. It is his will that we are healthy, strong, vital, and full of life. It is his will that we have a relationship, a friendship, a relaxed, walking in the garden in the cool of the evening, a face to face relationship with him. It is his 'heart,' his 'desire', his 'nature', his 'character', his 'WILL' to love us!

If we look to heaven, we see all these same things. So, when Jesus says, 'This is how you should pray... ' '...thy WILL be done on earth, as it is in heaven...' this is what we're asking for! All of the above! This is God's WILL for us! Fabulous isn't it??