Weekend Inspiration Vol. 6

From The Devotional Bible by Max Lucado:

He placed one scoop of clay upon another until a form lay lifeless on the ground...

All were silent as the Creator reached in himself and removed something yet unseen. "It's called choice.' The seed of choice."

Creation stood in silence and gazed upon the lifeless form. An angel spoke, "But what if he..." "What if he chooses not to love?" the Creator finished. "Come, I will show you."

Unbound by today, God and the angel walked into the realm of tomorrow...

The angel gasped at what he saw. Spontaneous love. Voluntary devotion. Never had he seen anything like these...The angel stood speechless as they passed through centuries of repugnance. Never had he seen such filth. Rotten hearts. Ruptured promises. Forgotten loyalties.

The Creator walked on in time, further and further into the future, until he stood by a tree. A tree that would be fashioned into a cradle. Even then he could smell the hay that would surround him.

"Wouldn't it be easier to not plant the seed? Wouldn't it be easier to not give the choice?"

"It would," the Creator spoke slowly. "But to remove the choice is to remove the love."

...They stepped into the Garden again. The Maker looked earnestly at the clay creation.

A monsoon of love swelled up within him. He had died for the creation before he had made him. God's form bent over the sculpted face and breathed. Dust stirred on the lips of the new one. The chest rose, cracking the red mud. The cheeks fleshened. A finger moved. And an eye opened.

But more incredible than the moving flesh was the stirring of the spirit. Those who could see the unseen gasped. Perhaps it was the wind that said it first. Perhaps what the star that moment is what has made it blink ever since. Maybe it was left to an angel to whisper it:

"It looks like...it appears so much like...it is him!"

The angel wasn't speaking of the face, the features, or the body. He was looking inside at the soul.

"It's eternal!" gasped another.

Within the man, God had placed a divine seed. A seed of his self. The God of might had created the mightiest. The Creator had created, not a creature, but another creator. And the One who had chosen to love had created one who could love in return.

Now it's our choice.