Christmas is on December 25th. We don’t know the exact date of Jesus’ birth, mind you, but a long time ago an arbitrary decision was made about when to celebrate that incredible event. It’s argued that the date was chosen in order to suppress a Pagan festival, but ultimately, there is no real good reason for choosing that particular time of the year. It just works. It’s the same thing with Easter. Oh, and New years too. Personally, I would suggest that the vernal equinox, that is, the day before days start getting longer would make sense; it would be a true new beginning of sorts. Still, it’s just a day in the calendar. As long as we all agree, no real reason for choosing it is necessary.
There are a great many things that we do without any particular reason, or at least no reason that would really stand up to scrutiny. I prefer to back my car into parking spots. Ostensibly it’s so that it makes getting out easier; realistically it doesn’t matter which way I park. I tend to eat my food in order, literally saving the best for last. Again, saving the best for last makes sense to me, but it’s not a particularly good reason. It’s just the way I’m wired.
God created humanity for no other reason than it being His will to do so. Oh, sure, as you move through the Bible you find assorted reasons if you look hard enough, but the original Genesis account offers no good explanation as to God’s motives for creating anything. I think the word that would work best here is inscrutable. That means that we can’t know God’s reason for doing what He did; it made sense to Him; that’s all that He needs us to know.
There’s no good reason for what happened next, either. Adam and Eve had a great thing going. The Garden of Eden provided everything they needed and they were in perfect relationship with God. There was no reason they should have fallen away. God had given them a clear, simple instruction, but they chose not to follow it for reasons that might have made sense at the time, but in the end were not justifiable.
Eve and Adam’s mistake continued through subsequent generations and continues to this day. God has provided clear and simple instructions for how to live well, happily and in relationship with Him, and we humans still fail to do what’s best for us. You would think that God would simply give up on us because there is no good reason for our disobedience, and no reason for not doing as God asks. Yet for no good reason other than His great love for us, God continuously forgives us and tries to bring us back to Him.
There was no good reason for Jesus to die on our behalf, yet that’s what He did. God’s love was, is and always shall be so great that Jesus’ death was fully justified in God’s view. We can’t understand that love. We can’t make logical sense of a passion so great. There is no reason God should love us as He does. But it is precisely because we are so passionately loved that we have no reason not to love God in return.
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