Sharing Love

"For God is good - or rather, of all goodness He is Fountainhead, and it is impossible for one who is good to be mean or grudging about anything. Grudging existence to none therefore, He made all things out of nothing through His own Word, our Lord Jesus Christ; and of all these earthly creatures He reserved especial mercy for the race of men."

St. Athanasius

I read those sentences over and over and wondered what in the world Athanasius was saying. Then it hit me - God, in His goodness, is full and overflowing and out of that fullness God created. Like a husband and wife full in their love for each other who decide to have children, the Father, Son, and Spirit in their fullness determined that their love was too good to keep to themselves.

In other words, God created not out of need but out of fullness! God is a philanthropist that has so much that the only natural thing to do is share - not hoard.

When we start with a bored, lonely god who creates out his need to be worshiped or glorified, what we have is an egocentric god. A god that needs fixing. That idea even shapes our understanding of the cross. The cross becomes aimed at changing God's attitude and appeasing His hurt feelings, because after all, it's all about Him.

God as Trinity tells us that God has never been egocentric. The Father, Son and Spirit have always been other-centered and the fountain of all love - God is love! The cross is not an instrument to appease an angry god, in whose hands we are held (i.e. Jonathan Edwards), but the surgeon's scalpel used to remove the diseased condition of our humanity. God, in His other-centered love, determined to save us even it killed Him.

God is full of love for you!