8. Humans And Desire For The Absolute
Humans are not satisfied with what they have and always dream and aspire to find the most perfect thing. In the 4th century Saint Augustine wrote, “My soul will be restless until it finds rest in You” (Confessions 1,1,1).
God is absolute, and is it possible for humans to find Him?
It is said in the book of Genesis, “When the LORD saw how great the wickedness of human beings was on earth, and how every desire that their heart conceived was always nothing but evil, the LORD regretted making human beings on the earth, and his heart was grieved” (Genesis 6:5-6).
Through human language that is too limited and inadequate, the Bible describes God’s disappointment with the creatures He created. With God’s holy nature, He must surely exterminate them from sight.
But what did God do?
1. GO AND FIND
Actually, God looks for us. From the beginning, He was proactive in this search.
The Bible recounts that, after Adam and Eve sinned, “The LORD God then called to the man and asked him: Where are you? He answered, “I heard you in the garden; but I was afraid, because I was naked, so I hid” (Genesis 3:9-10).
God called Abraham to establish His own people: “The LORD said to Abram: Go forth from your land, your relatives, and from your father’s house to a land that I will show you” (Genesis 12:1).
God called Moses and sent him to King Pharaoh to save the people from slavery in Egypt. God called him to Mount Sinai and gave him ten commandments.
God always accompanies His chosen people and gives instructions through the prophets.
With the New Testament, God’s search demonstrates His earnest concern for people: “He came to what was his own, but his own people did not accept him” (John 1:11).
For 3 years, Jesus walked through the villages teaching and searching, inviting, gathering them to green pastures “because they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd” (Matthew 9:36).
The Lord goes looking for us, like looking for a lost coin, and when he finds it, he holds a party to celebrate: “There will be rejoicing among the angels of God over one sinner who repents” (Luke 15:10).
And the purpose of searching is to save us: “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost” (Luke 19:10).
2. SALVATION
When the first ancestors sinned because of disobedience, God did not let people perish but wanted to restore reconciliation through a plan of salvation: “It is not the will of your heavenly Father that one of these little ones be lost” (Mt 18:14).
From the beginning (Genesis 3, 15), God gave humans hope for reconciliation and restoration of life as it was before the fall. Salvation is a free gift because God wants people to participate in His divine life.
“What is man that you are mindful of him.” (Psalm 8). It can only be explained by love. Love for the creation that He was very pleased with, ” God looked at everything he had made, and found it very good” (Genesis 1:31), a selfless love.
God is transcendent and sublime. To reconcile, there must be a commensurate exchange. Therefore, God himself must come down as a human being to redeem us: “In the beginning was the Word, … and the Word was God” (John 1:1) and “And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (John 1:14). That is Jesus Christ, the Messiah, announced and prepared by the Bible, through the history of the Jewish people.
“In times past, God spoke in partial and various ways to our ancestors through the prophets; in these last days, he spoke to us through a son” (Heb 1:1-2).
Jesus came to earth to complete what the Old Testament had not yet finished, teaching us the doctrine of love, reconciling God with humans and proving God’s love for humans, through death, on the cross.
Humans regained grace, becoming God’s beloved creatures.
3. BLESSING OF ETERNAL LIFE
“He destined us for adoption to himself through Jesus Christ” (Eph 1:5). God considers us as His beloved children after being saved. He blesses us with eternal life and let us participate in His divine life.
Jesus said, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever” (Ga 6:51).
Qin Shi Huang sent people to go up mountains and rivers to find the elixir of life but could not find it. But if you find it, what will you enjoy in this dirty life? According to quantum science, matter is just an empty illusion; it is just vibrational frequencies, like Max Planck, Albert Einstein’s teacher, the 1918Nobel Prize winner in physics said.
Although we cannot see divine life, it is very real. Daily experience and science also show us that what cannot be seen is truly there.
How happy are those who believe in God, the Creator who made everything, rich visible matter as well as the invisible world we cannot see, but we know it exists. He promised us to participate in His divine life: “Everything of mine is yours” (Parable of the Prodigal Son, Ga 17:10).
Conclusion:
God did not create us to play hide and seek. Although people have committed the sin of rebellion and shunned Him. He still proactively searches for us, reconciles with us, and bestows salvation so that we can become His adopted children and enjoy eternal happiness together.
Saint Augustine also said, “God who created us without our help will not save us without our consent.” God needs us to cooperate with Him in salvation. We must respond to His love and go find Him.
Where to find God?
Not in luxurious massive mansions, in majestic buildings, in blue-clad officials, but in the poor, tattered, shabby, in the smelly prison camps. “Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison, and not minister to your needs?” (Mt 25:44)
The Lord declares, “I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me” (Mt 25:40).
Do we see God in the poor people?