Tuesday, February 22
For you come far short of being able to love my creation more than I love it.
—2 Esdras 8:47
It's a shame that Protestants don't often read the Apocrypha—books that once were part of the Bible, but were deemed outside the Protestant canon.
Here, in a series of conversations between Ezra and the angel Uriel, Ezra is worried that God might do harm to those whom Ezra loves. God reminds Ezra that even his great love is a poor imitation of God's love for God's own creation.
We cannot out-love God. God has a deep and abiding love for all that God has made. To me, that is both a comfort and a challenge. It is a challenge because it is quite easy to forget that God cares about what is happening around me and wants me to be a channel of God's love for creation.
With love God created both the rainforests and the deserts. God loves every deer in the forest and every woodchuck that scurries into a hole. God loves every baby on earth and wishes for them a life of righteousness and peace. When I act in ways that dishonor God's love for creation, I have wounded the heart of God.
In those times when I find that I have sinned by not loving Creation as God does—when I have participated in pollution, treated a creature God loves as if it is inconsequential, or acted in unloving ways to any of God's children—I get nervous. Just how mad is God going to be about this, I wonder. But then I remember that God loves me more than any human being can.
God loves me more than spouse or parents or best friend. Their love pales in comparison to God's great love for me. And so I am comforted. God might encourage me to better behavior and point out my shortcomings, but it is always with love, always with my greater good at heart. Nothing can separate me from the love of God.
Creator God, we your creatures bask in your love.
These Signposts originally appeared on explorefaith in 2006.
