God's Anger and Ours (Part 3)

Jesus made a comparison between earthly fathers and the heavenly father, saying, "If you being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly father give  good things to those who ask?"  Again, as a father, I know what this passage means in a way I didn't before I had children.  When my children were babies, I would go out of my way to warm bath water for them, prepare warm towels, do everything to make bath pleasant for my new-borns, who hate being uncovered. But still, they would scream like they were being tortured.  If you heard them, you would think I was being cruel.  Quite the opposite was happening.  I say all of this to show you that I get glimpses of how God feels by the experiences he puts me in.  As a husband, I get glimpses of what Christ the Bridegroom feels about His Bride.  I get glimpses of God's love, grief, joy...and anger.

I'll give you another illustration of something God showed me about His anger.  I was a music major, a composer.  (Now, remember the principle of double descriptions, of thinking relationally--you can't think of me as a composer without thinking of my compositions.) If a composer writes a symphony and goes to the performance of his symphony, he is usually acknowledged by the conductor at the end of the performance.  But listen.  If the conductor or orchestra doesn't play what the composer wrote, what the composer traditionally does is this: when the conductor acknowledges the composer, he will deliberately get up, turn his back to the conductor, and walk out, instead of taking a bow!  Why?  Because in his mind, what the audience just heard is not what he wrote!  So he will not honor it or acknowledge it.  In fact, he regrets ever letting them play his piece. 

Now think of that in relation to God's words about creation before he flooded the earth!  God, the divine composer, was seeing something that he did not write!  And he regretted what he saw.  He gave us a piece of music to play, our very lives, and we played something he did not write or intend.  As a composer, I know EXACTLY how this feels!  I had to do a senior recital where my compositions were played.  When people played what I wrote, it felt like heaven. When they didn't, it felt like hell.  I was angry when people took what was in my head and made it something that never came into my head.

Click HERE for Part 4