I meant to get back to this much sooner, but life had other plans for me.
In order to explain this I need to point out a particular part of scripture.
Job 26:13 By his spirit he hath garnished the heavens; his hand hath formed the crooked serpent.
To make my point a bit more, let me show you a few other scriptures.
Gen 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
Gen 1:27 So God created man in his [own] image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
Gen 2:7 And the LORD God formed man [of] the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
Ok. Now I'm hoping that what I'm about to say is understandable and clear. It's difficult to explain this in its entirety, simply because I'm actually writing a book on a portion of this subject matter, and if I had an explanation that I could scribble down in a simple forum post, I would not be writing a book on the matter, but here is the simplest way I can explain this one idea.
In the verse in Job, above, it says that God formed the crooked serpent, meaning Satan. Now, that is going to rub a lot of people the wrong way, but I'm simply quoting actual scripture here. It's not my idea.
There are certain ideologies and events written in scripture that did not happen in the order in which we read them, nor in the order they were placed in the bible. Its' not like a novel that you read from beginning to end, and expect that the timeline of events is synchronized that way. It's not.
God is a being of light. Everything He does is done in light. Everything He creates is created in light. But note the difference in verbiage here. There is a difference between being "created" and being "formed."
If you noted, in the two verses from Genesis, it says that God both created and formed man. That speaks of the duality of our nature, being both flesh and spirit. If you are not of the Christian faith, you may not be aware of this or know much about it, but we are both. The war of the worlds, of mankind is one of spirit against flesh.
However, if God is light, anything that is outside of that light is dark, or in darkness. God creates in light. In Genesis, once the world became dark and void, (see Genesis 1:2), that meant that evil had entered it. God's perfect creation was blemished. He did restore light to it, to make it an acceptable environment for us, but it was still imperfect and blemished.
Being that we were both created in spirit, and also formed from the clay of this blemished earth, we are all in sin. That blemish from the earth which formed our bodies makes us unclean, imperfect, and unacceptable to God's perfection. This is why we need salvation. It was not just the fall of Adam and Eve, but this imperfection we were born with that would make us fall to begin with, given free will and choices. We are all fallible and full of bad decisions that make us fall short of God's glory.
Therefore, none of us are truly innocent. We are all born into sin and we cannot escape our sinful condition without accepting and believing on God's son, Jesus Christ, and the sacrifice He made to set us free from that sinful condition we were born into.
Understand that God had a plan for this from the beginning because the beginning did not start in Genesis, but prior to that, and is described actually, in Revelations, and Christ was the key to this rescue plan for mankind.
Still, as believers, we are saved from the guilt and punishment for our sins, but this salvation does not make us perfect in our actions. What it does is perfect us in our faith as we relearn how to be; how to walk like Christ, with love towards others.
Will we slip and fall? Yes, but those slip ups are all part of the process of growth, evolution and change. It is all a part of our faith and our walk with God that requires that we learn to trust in Him and not in what we see happening around us.
Now, all of that was basically an intro so that I can answer your specific question.
Ever seen a rubix cube? I'm sure you have. Most people are aware of what that is. Each side of the cube that you can see has a distinct color, and so if you were to use your imagination, you could imagine that the entire cube is filled with a bunch of smaller cubes, like a multiplex of cubes that make up the whole.
Now imagine that that multiplex cube is the invisible object that encapsulates the earth, our atmosphere and environment. Imagine that there were millions of cubes within it, and each of us inhabit or are encapsulated within a tiny cube, which is, in essence a cube of space. Then there'd be billions, right? To represent all the people of the world.
Ok. Now imagine that this general cube that encases all these millions of cubes is constantly moving, rotating and turning. None of us really know which way, then, would be up, down, or sideways, except what we individually experience in any given moment. This is why we must rely on God who has the aerial viewpoint that we don't have; who sees all of us. We are all moving through space, and all of us are in and part of a process, even if we don't know it.
As we move about within our respective cubes, we intersect and touch other cubes; other lives, because there are six sides to each cube, so we are constantly intersecting with other cubes of space or lives. Most people don't seem to recognize this, but every day, you and I affect numerous other individuals, and situations sometimes without even realizing it. Just our presence, can affect a person or situation, and this is why we must be careful of our decisions, because there is a great deal of gravity to them.
Those touches; our conscious and subconscious interactions with others can affect them for a moment, or for years; and can be either adverse, or positive. And in the meantime, no matter what the effect, it is all a part of our individual process; growth, and evolution.
I don't think that God intends for anyone to suffer hurt and pain. However, in the process of intersecting lives with other people, it can happen. It is not any one thing that causes it, but a number of variables that when mixed and combined in a sequence of events, can result in a situation that seems painful.
However, it greatly depends on the perspective spectacles you are wearing too. What you deem as a hurtful situation, could be something that is laughable to another person, or maybe, they wouldn't think twice about it.
All of this is due to the experiences and background of learned information that brought you and them to that point in your individual process; and ultimately that process is towards finding God. For some people, they look to materialism as a god, so they will behave accordingly, because that is the god they serve and worship.
Many people are slaves to electronic impulses, which really is all money is about, and that is their god, but again, all people are looking for God in some way. Really, that is all any of us are here to do, and we are all walking towards what we understand as the answers.
We are all seeking. But understand that what you may feel hurt about, is all a part of the process of helping you to grow, to find God, to develop your faith, and in the process, to share what you learn with others, because you can help them because of your experience. Nothing is ever just about any one individual. I hope you could understand what I said, and it made sense to you.
There's a beautiful book that explains the connectedness of us all so wonderfully. It's called, "The Five People You Meet In Heaven." I'm not espousing this particularly as a Christian book, because I'm actually not certain about the beliefs of the author. Nor am I agreeing specifically with his idea of "heaven." However, on the point of connectedness, and how we all, as individuals affect each others' lives, whether knowingly or not, I think he hit it on the head within the context of this story.
Furthermore, if you are interested, you might find a bit more about some of the things I mentioned on my
blog, where some of this info was discussed concerning the subject of "What is your life worth?" Peace and blessings.
Sandy