I read a lot of fantasy and science fiction. I enjoy the genres for a number of reasons, but one of those reasons is that speculative fiction allows the author and readers to explore relationships and culture in interesting ways, because the story takes place in a different world with its own rules. One of the things that makes me both thoughtful and sad in this exploration is the treatment of religion. With a few exceptions (can you say C. S. Lewis?), those who explore religion in any serious way usually don’t have a pre-eminent supernatural creator at all, or they have one who doesn’t care about the creation.

That is heart-breaking to me, especially since I know that many people believe that one of those two things is the case in the real world.

Of course, it’s not only those who are outside of Christianity who seem to believe that we have a God who doesn’t care. Even some Christian depictions of God emphasize judgment to the exclusion of all else.

Any of these beliefs about God lead to lives that are less than they could be. If we believe that God doesn’t exist or just doesn’t care, then we struggle on alone and believe there are no answers and no relief for the issues in the world beyond human action. If we believe that God is only a judge looking to condemn, then we live in fear and constant concern over how we might offend. Alternately, we might simply give up and decide that there is nothing we can do to appease him, so we might as well live selfishly.

The good news is that these are not accurate pictures of the God of the Bible. Scripture depicts not a distant God who ignores his creation, but rather a God who is active in history and has relationships with his people. He walks with Enoch. He instructs Noah. He calls Abraham and speaks to him a number of times, even allowing him to bargain. He calls Moses and leads the people of Israel, repeatedly interfering with natural processes as they leave Egypt, wander about, and ultimately conquer and settle the land of Canaan. He speaks to judge after judge after judge, ending with Samuel. He calls David to be king and protects him repeatedly. He speaks to many prophets. He protects Daniel from the lions and Daniel’s friends from fire. Over and over we see him speaking and acting to work out his purposes.

All that action could still be the work of a demanding and vengeful God, but as we look at his relationships with his people, we can see that it is not. We see him using those others condemn. Rahab, a prostitute, helps the Israelite spies escape, and so is spared along with her family, and becomes an example of faith. That could only happen with a God loves people and values mercy as well as judgment. That only happens with a God whose word proclaims that “Mercy triumphs over judgment” (James 2:13b ESV).

God sends Jonah to warn the Ninevites of coming judgment. Jonah is furious when the Ninevites repent and God relents in his judgment failing to understand that God sent him exactly so that the people would repent. God’s caring and kindness consistently confound even his own prophets.

We have a God who comforts his followers. When Elijah is alone and despairing, ready to lie down and die, quite literally, God sends an angel with food and water who encourages Elijah to eat and drink and rest. Only after that recovery does God reassure Elijah that he is not alone and send him on a new mission (1 Kings 19).

In Jesus, we see the ultimate expression of God’s caring. We see it in his ministry. People flock to him, and we see him repeatedly responding to their needs–healing, blessing children, even raising the dead on a few occasions. His conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well could have gone very differently. She is shocked that he even speaks to her because of the enmity between Samaritans and Jews. He could have ignored her. He could have looked down on her. He could have condemned her for her sinful behavior. Instead, he gently points out the truth and offers her hope and a better life (John 4).

There are many such examples of caring in as we look at the gospels, but the biggest example is, of course, his purpose in coming to earth at all. 

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. (John 3:16-18 ESV)

God is a holy and righteous God who cannot tolerate wrongdoing, but his solution for that was to sacrifice himself so that we could have a relationship with him despite the wrong we have done. As Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13 ESV).

And still more good news is that God’s caring doesn’t stop with the cross. We have the Holy Spirit and a number of promises that God will always be with us, if we have chosen to turn our lives over to him. 

It can be hard, at times, to remember that we serve a loving God. This is a broken and sin-filled world with a lot of problems and a lot of pain, and we have a God who chose to give us free will and the freedom to make our own choices whether good or bad. But we serve a God of peace and love who will bring us through this world with hope and joy if we hold tight to him and allow ourselves to remember that he does care.

 

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