For God's Sake

Ezekiel 36:16-28

When you’re growing up, there are some things you simply don’t want your parents to know. For example, you don’t want to tell them about embarrassing things that happen in junior high. The last thing you want is for your parent to make things worse by going down to the school and trying to make things right. They may have good intentions, but you know their mere presence will make things worse. You don’t want to tell them about that party you went to when bad things took place. You can fill in the blank as to your own set of “bad things.” You don’t want them to know because 1) you don’t want to get into trouble, and 2) you don’t want them to have a worse opinion of you than they might already. As kids, we like to maintain that idea that our parents see us as angels for as long as we can.

Of course, parents know a lot more than you think they know. We’re not as good at hiding things as we think we are. That’s true of God, our heavenly father, too. Of course he knows more than we think he knows. He knows it all. And yet, those same fears are there. We don’t want to get in trouble, that is punished, and we don’t want God to have a bad view of us.

While there is, justifiably, some overlap in our view of our parents to our view of God, they are not the same.

For example, now that I’m a parent, I’ve learned enough about my kids’ bad choices that I’d rather not know the full extent. I’d like to hold onto some measure of ignorance about them. Right? A little ignorance is bliss. But that is not the case with God. He has no limit to what he knows about you and yet, contrary to your fears, he doesn’t pull back from knowing you, no matter how bad your choices have been.

How do I know? Because there is no limit to the lengths he will go to save his children.