God the father looked and saw an earth and heaven filled with happy creatures and he smiled. Then he looked at Jesus. They shared a knowing glance which took the smile away. God nodded and swallowed. He cleared his throat. His creation froze and turned to listen.
He declared, “I will add another creation to your many.” All of the angels applauded, the whales sang and the earth groomed itself in preparation for its new guest.
“This new creation will be the pinnacle of my creation. I will call it Man.” Again oceans and skies roared with joy. “But Man will be different from the rest of you in one main thing. He will have the choice to serve me or to disobey me.”
The happy chipmunks went back to their playing and leaves floated carelessly to the forest floors. But the angels paused and thought about this. The brightest and most intelligent of all the angels approached God and said, “My lord, why would you give the option to any creature to not do what is best for them?”
God the father turned to Jesus and they shared the knowing gaze again. “I knew this would be hard for you to understand, Lucifer. Though you are my most brilliant creature so far, you do not know what I know. You must trust me in this.”
Lucifer paused, then respectfully objected, “But my liege, if they have the choice to go their own way, some of them will choose not to be in Your light and life. They will die. I love them- like you do. Why would you give any creature that option?”
“There is a deeper kind of love that you do not understand. You do not know what happened when only Jesus and I existed.”
With that, Jesus stood and stirred the heavens with his voice and a pile of dust turned to mud and then took the shape of a naked, shivering man.
Lucifer spread his wings and screamed his protest! It was a mistake to let mankind, in their weak reasoning and flawed understanding choose their own fate. They don’t know what is best for them. Lucifer glared at God, and for the first time felt excluded from the love between the father and son. “It just doesn’t make sense why you would condemn some of your creatures. I can only conclude that you are not truly a God of love. You love yourself more than them if you will let some of them die if they choose not to love you. And I doubt your love for me is sincere any more.”
God looked at Jesus but spoke to Lucifer, “This will hurt us as well, more than you can imagine right now. But it is worth it. Please trust us. We would only truly be a God of the deepest love if we do this one thing.”
The strong, glistening angel clenched his jaw and turned away. He mumbled, “I would do it a different way.”
God replied, “If you will not believe I am a God of love, then I will give you the choice as well. And you will learn it like the humans but likewise it will be with much pain.”
Lucifer, realizing that God had just opened the door of pain to him as well, turned around, lifted his strong arm and gave God the bird. He told the other angels what God had said, and many of them followed Lucifer as he flew away. They landed on earth where he would choose to live in a truly loving way, unlike God.
He watched the creation called Man and the newer feminine model walking around in dumb wonder. He watched as God gave them the choice to trust his instructions or to do what they thought was best. That’s when Lucifer moved in. He convinced them that God was hiding something from them and they could disobey like he had. He said only he wanted what was best for them. He fed them this crap and they ate it.
As Lucifer watched Humanity go down the drain because he had convinced them to do what they wanted, his resentment grew. As he saw how he had been wrong, he took his anger and jealousy out on the people and his new mission became revenging the God that made angels only able to understand part of his love.
He eventually began to see the deeper plan at work. He saw when God called them back to him over and over even after they sexed other lovers. He saw Jesus die for them, though it was they that killed him. And he saw how love is so much deeper when it is given in return for hurt. Loving someone because they are beautiful and kind to you is only half of love, and it’s the happy half. But the kind that embraces a son after he has squandered your wealth, or puts you in charge after you have denied him three times, or promises he still loves you after you give him the bird- that makes all the pain in the universe possible, and all the pain in the universe worth it.
Raw Spoon
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