I Will Draw

I Will Draw

Wink and I just spent several days of delightful Holiday time with an affirmed atheist.   (Don’t worry, I will ask for this person’s permission before publishing this essay…..)

We have actually done such things many times before and always enjoy the warmth and companionship of other beautiful human beings, whether believers in God, or not…  I think God (some might say, if there is a God), also enjoys such companionship; so should we…  I believe that God is good and loves his creation unconditionally, and so should we…  Unfortunately, on David Letterman’s Top Ten list of what one thinks of when “Christian”, or “God Believer”, is perhaps imagined to be given, I cannot imagine that unconditional love is on that list.  For instance, say Christian, say Jewish, say Muslim, and will the first thing you think of be unconditional love?  Would it be anywhere on the Top Ten list?  Just asking….

I try not to push my spiritual beliefs on others, even though my radical thinking sometimes causes others consternation……  I admit it… I am a flawed, less than perfect human being…  I am not a popular person, no one I know of is following after me to listen to my insane (according to some) babbling:):)  I am gullible, and try to believe the best in humans, often to my detriment, but I hope I can always, with God’s help, offer my unconditional love to everyone….  I am most often hurt, and disappointed, but I guess I like it that way…

I have been imagining over the weekend how God gives us space…  Space to choose him, space and time to accept him…  No altar calls for God….  Just time, just space, and I really believe God has plenty of time and space on hand, unlike we humans…..  Unlike we humans, he does not need a notch in his six gun for every person he has loved, or called, or…… Drawn……

Which brings to mind what I have been thinking about…..

John 12:28-34

Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.” 29 The crowd that was there and heard it said it had thundered; others said an angel had spoken to him.

30 Jesus said, “This voice was for your benefit, not mine. 31 Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. 32 But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.”  33 He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die.

34 The crowd spoke up, “We have heard from the Law that the Christ will remain forever, so how can you say, ‘The Son of Man must be lifted up’? Who is this ‘Son of Man’?”

NIV

Now you have it…. John is hearing voices again….:):)

However, here we see others heard voices also, voices, apparently from an angel, voices from heaven…..  OH, and the voice of this Jesus, who states that ” But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.”

Draw all men?  Draw Greek men?  Draw Jewish men?  Draw Chinese men? Draw American Indian men?  Keep in mind there were no “Christian” men at that time…  Draw unbelieving men? Draw atheist men?  All men? Really?

I already know you are thinking, that John is just a Universalist, and he thinks everyone will be saved….  Actually, I would like to be a Universalist, and I would like for everyone to be saved, but I have some cognitive dissonance regarding that matter…

I do believe with all my heart and all my mind that God will draw all men, without compulsion, as the Islamist might say, to himself…  I want to believe it…. I do believe it…. Some who are reading this say that is just not what it means, to draw all men, just like that… They do not want that to happen….  I do…

It is possible that everyone will not accept that drawing, that given a free choice to believe or not to believe, some will just say no…..  I hope not, but I do see some possibilities of that scenario…  But, I can only imagine, that in this drawing process, whether it be now, whether it be tomorrow, next month, next year, at the end of a human being’s consciousness, or, when a human being is resurrected at a future time an place, having never been yet drawn by God, that it will be beautiful, beaconing, Irresistible, Graceful, pure, Holy, Loving, and True…  I think it will have something to do with Cruciform Love, that I just wrote about….. But still, a choice… a willing, free, noncompulsory choice….

Some say, (Jesus, actually), that God knows every bird that falls to the earth….  I can only imagine that if a beautiful human being makes a choice not to be drawn into this love, this substance in whom we are to live and have our being, that God will see it, and regret it, and cry about it, and grieve….  For a while anyway, then all tears will be wiped away, and joy and love and peace and harmony and happiness will reign in a new Kingdom, forever, and ever…

God so loved…..

John Cooper

http://tuscaloosacirclesofpeace.blogspot.com/