Sigmund Freud’s couch
The Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. Genesis 6:6
We can bring God joy, and we can bring him sadness and pain. It’s pretty amazing when you consider the fact that we have this kind of power. We can, in our own words, make or mess up God’s day.
I recently had a spiritual mentor tell me to spend some time ministering to the Lord. At first that sounded a bit ostentatious, that I could minister to Him, as if He needed anything. Well, it’s true, He doesn’t need anything, but still He made us to reach out to Him and perhaps find Him. To do so, He would have had to make Himself vulnerable to the process He created.
Sometimes I wonder if God didn’t purposely create a need in Himself for us when He made us, thus making Him open to both the pain and the joy of a relationship. When God saw that it wasn’t good for Adam to be alone could that not have mirrored His own aloneness? In Eve, He gave both Adam and Himself a bride – one that through sin and rebellion would cause Him great joy and great pain.
When working on my first novel (Saint Ben) it was this very idea that provided the grist for the story when I discovered what happens when you take the Pascalian idea of a God-shaped vacuum in every human heart and turn it around. That’s when I came up with a Ben-shaped hole in the heart of God, just the size to fit Ben Beamering’s ornery, non-conforming self.
In watching the play last night, Freud’s Last Session, a hypothetical conversation between an angry, atheistic, sick and dying Sigmund Freud and a young, passionate newly converted C.S. Lewis, the God-shaped vacuum in both their hearts and their conversation was plainly evident. But you also can’t walk away from this riveting performance without a sense that God must have a big hole in His heart in the shape of both of these men whether they found out about it or not.
[God] is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9)
John Fischer The Catch 
Here is what is so awesome, fascinating, incredible, marvelous, prodigious, shocking, stunning, surprising, unbelievable, and wonderful to me (I use all these synonyms for “amazing” because that word has been so overused to have become meaningless): God KNEW that man would sin. He KNEW what that would cost Him. He knew it, and created us anyway… not just “created man” but created YOU. Created ME. He KNEW what I would cost Him, and he said, “she’s worth it;” knew what YOU would cost Him, and said “he’s worth it.” THAT is how much each of us is loved.
jus like to add, i am soooooooo glad one Sunday morning when the last thing i was looking for was a realtionship w/ God through His Son, Jesus – my old high school sweet-heart and i would go to each others Church services ever year, we’d switch off, one year go to my family’s Church the next year hers and this one Chirstmas service in 1979 the Pastor, THX GOD ended it, by saying anyone that would like to learn how to get to heaven, come forward – I can rememember thinking: my mom didn’t raise no-fool, if this guy knows something I don’t, I’m going forward to find out jus wat it is – and thanks be to God, i did… and i found out our great, loving and very mercyful God wanted and made a way for me to have a relationship w/ Him… Praise the Lord!!! I still to this day, don’t understand it, yet very thankful 4 it and His Son!
This is a verse that has made me sit up and take notice in my Bible reading. God right after this decides to destroy the whole world with the flood, but found love for Him in Noah so he and his family became the first remnant. This passage shows God’s grace and also his judgment. It struck me how upset He was when he saw our total selfishness. He had already promised the Savior Genesis 3:15 so He wasn’t going back on that promise.
God definitely has a big hole in his heart. Sin hurt Him as deeply as His love and grace are overwhelming. It really bothers me how much my sin hurts the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. They are my friends, how can I possibly sin against them, and yet I do and make that hole bigger. Thank God for Jesus, and the fact that I fit in that hole and have lots of room.
Larry Crabb wrote a book about the 66 Love Letters from God. In this book I became annoyed at reading the same thing over and over. In one word I needed to be obedient was the message. God in each love letter was lovingly telling me that. The severity of His call to obedience was directlyl related to my distance away from Him due to my sin. I struck me, here I am annoyed but really God is annoyed with me. Despite His annoyance He keeps lovingly calling me back to Him. It takes 66 books to do that.
My prayer… Lord keep me repenting no matter what. Once again from the bottom of my heart thank you for fitting me into that hole in your heart. Your grace overwhelms me. Remind me to show love to you always via obedience. Thank you for being my intimate friends despite my shortcomings. Thank You!
Only one point, as the Triune God, He has never been lonely. One on one and group social interactions are all possible at the foundational level within the Godhead itself. This makes His desire for us even more astounding. It was not a need on His part. Unlike the gods of the Greeks and Romans, our God is complete and lacking in no aspect. He desired it and brought it to pass. As a consequence we contribute to His glory. I heard the term glorify once defined as making God look good. I suppose much like a beautiful diamond looks even better on black felt.
The diamond doesn’t change, it’s our perception that has improved.
Yes, absolutely. He didn’t need us, but in creating us, did He not create in Himself a need that may not have been there before?