My brilliant friend, Cliff proposed an idea to me the other day. It was that God learns. He said something like: God created man and then seems to have learned that it was not good for him to be alone. He even flooded the world when he saw how badly we had messed it up. A little bit of trial and error going on. It sure seems like God learns.
How is that possible if God is outside of time and can flip to any page in history and read it like a book- that he wrote, no less. How can he be limited inside the story that he wrote to learn from what happens in it?
Another friend, Naomi (who’s very clever with words) broke down this word for me: CON-descend. God descended “with” us.
What if in the condescending, God veiled a part of his own foreknowledge from himself? And he did it for the purpose of living in real relationship with us. What sort of relationship would it be if my dad knew and wrote out every event in my life before it happened? I think it would be like trying to have a relationship with a book, fighting to unstick the next heavy page.
So, I don’t deny that our God knows all things, including the future long before it happens, but maybe he sets that aspect of his character aside so he can be in a real relationship with his children. And he wanted to do it so much, that he stayed in character even while we shoved nails and spears into him and stuffed him into the ground.
But then is when the divine kicked back in. He hopped back up and said, “It’s been a pleasure condescending with you, but now look upon this and give up your old ways because I’d like you to share in the divine with me.”
Raw Spoon
