GRIEVED

Genesis 6:6 The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled.

Scripture tells us that the Lord is “deeply troubled" or "grieved”… his heart was filled with pain. The word translated as grieved is from the same Hebrew root as the word “pain”. The same word is used to describe what Eve will experience in childbirth, and what Adam will also confront in his working to make the soil productive. Man’s pain has become God’s pain. Did you catch that? God experiences pain, grief, sadness, because of humanity.

The pain that God was experiencing was directly connected to the pain that humanity was experiencing. We don’t often think of God as experiencing pain or grief but this God is not so distant from humanity that he remains unaffected by them. This God remains so close that man’s pain becomes his pain, man’s suffering becomes his suffering, man’s rejection becomes his grief.

We often think of God as grand, ethereal, out there, beyond, separated, detached. Yet our Bible paints a different picture, one of desire for connection and intimacy, of a heart that can be broken, experience pain and grief - one surprisingly like our own. Or perhaps we could say that since we are made in His image we are surprisingly like him, even when we disbelieve, disregard, or challenge his existence.

It is as if God wants us to hear him say, "that pain you are experiencing, that hurt which was thrust upon you, that burden you carry... I see your pain, I know how you feel." God would have to make himself pretty vulnerable to profound rejection in order to say he had some regrets. The only way to hurt deeply is to love deeply. You are never alone in your suffering, this God knows how you feel.

Just a Meandering Thought...