Recently, during an otherwise casual conversation, a good friend of mine asked me a very difficult question. I say it's difficult because I personally know people who attend certain churches depending on how this question is answered, and people who choose not to attend church because of how it's answered. Her question was based on what she had been reading and learning in scripture, when God called a people to Himself through Abraham, a people He entered into covenant with and blessed. A chosen nation. Her question? Why would a loving God not choose everyone? Why did He choose through Abraham?
Great question. Hard question. My first tendency was to shrug my shoulders and say, I have no idea, and move the conversation elsewhere. But I was gently reminded of the verse that says I need to be ready to share the hope in which I profess. I do profess a belief in the LORD, the same Lord she was asking about, and she knew it. No running could escape the fact that I had just been hit hard and a response was desired. I immediately prayed that the Lord would shut my stupid mouth so that I wouldn't rattle off some nonsensical thing. I love my friend, so I wanted to give her the most solid answer I could give within my limited understanding of an all-powerful, all-knowing God.
Suddenly, it hit me clearly that her question wasn't one pertaining to theology, in fact, she had no idea of anything in that realm. Her question had everything to do with the nature of God. She wanted to know about Him. Isn't God supposed to be loving? In her mind, a God that would choose this man Abraham and not others isn't characteristic of a loving God. A loving God would choose everyone.
The best visual I came up with at that moment was the one of adoption. I have a brother because of the process of adoption. I know many couples who have flown to international destinations, in all cases more than once, to adopt children. We see celebrities with tons of money, and abundant resources adopt children from all over the world. I asked her what her feeling is of people like this? What is her overall perception of people who go into orphanages and choose a child, or more than one child to adopt? Does she consider them unloving because they don't choose all of the children? Sure, a valid argument could be that those people aren't God and are bound by laws, money, and other circumstances beyond their control. Had they more money or ability, they could adopt more. But the main question pointed back to the person doing the adopting. Did she consider them unloving because they chose a specific child to adopt and enter into familial relationship with?
The Bible teaches the truth that God is love, and love encompasses everything He chooses to do. From Genesis to Revelation, a beautiful picture is painted. The all-powerful, all-knowing God who walked with Adam and Eve in the garden, appeared to Moses and revealed His name, YHWH, meaning I AM. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob went before His people and behind His people protecting and continually forgiving them for their transgressions and disobedience to Him as Lord and father. He chose to send warnings through prophets, established the greatest kings that ever ruled over Israel, and out of His love came to walk among us, as one of us, in Jesus. He demonstrated His love to us by choosing to lay down his life, allowing himself to be beaten, slapped, mocked, denied, and nailed on a wooden cross, a most humiliating and criminal way to die.
Do we sometimes revert back to junior high or high school, when we're standing in line waiting to be picked by the team captain, you know, the popular, athletic kid, and feel our face become hot because we're the last to be picked? Do we say, if God is going to be team captain, then I'm not playing because He only picks the pretty, holy people, one of whom I never will be, or would want to be for that matter?
Did God choose the man named Abraham? Yes. Why did he choose him? I honestly don't know. I don't even want to think that I can fathom what God is doing. I do know that God's track record proves itself showing Him to choose from all ends of the spectrum, from the adulterers to the virgin, from the tax-collector to the poor in spirit, from those wrestling with demons, to the ones who are diseased. He chooses from those who are well-educated and religiously trained, to those everyone else rejects. He chooses women, kings, cupbearers, slaves, the list goes on. If we seriously consider what He has done, and continues to do, it's clear that He deserves all the credit in the world, because despite what biases we might carry, He is and always will be loving.
