God.

He is the only being in existence. An absolutely perfect being at that.

He says, “Let’s make a beautiful work of art. Let’s make a planet that lives…creatures that move and breathe…so that I can enjoy my masterpiece. I want it to be beautiful.”

So he does.

Friends.

He wants friends.

So he decides to make a special creature. A creature that can move, live, breathe, and THINK. A being with a soul.

God wants a relationship with this creature. It will be separate from all the other creatures he has made. This one will be able to commune with him. They will be friends.

So he makes a perfect, beautiful work of art….a world and a friend.

But…what kind of a friend is a friend who is forced to love you? Nobody wants a friend like that. So he gave his friend free will. The choice of whether or not he wanted to be his friend.

God is perfect, his home is perfect, and only perfection can be in his home. He hopes his friend will desire to live in this perfection, but he knows that this friend has the free choice.

Heaven is his home. He wants his friend to have a home of his own that he can enjoy. So, he gives his friend 100% dominion over this beautiful work of art and hopes that his friend loves him enough to take care of it.

He watches his friend explore this home he gave him. Tears fall from his eyes as his dear friend makes his choice: “I don’t want a relationship with you. I want to live for my own pleasure in the home you gave me.”

Because he loved his friend, he allowed him to go in peace. But he must reap the consequences of his free choice.

The unfortunate consequence of choosing imperfection is that his friend can’t come into God’s home. Not because God is mean or unloving, only because of the simple fact that it is perfect…imperfection would be repelled.

With a broken heart, God has to send his friend away. The only other choice besides community with him is being forever separated from his perfect home.

As God’s beautiful world begins to grow with more and more creatures, he will give each creature the chance to freely choose to have this friendship with him.

He knows that the only plausible way to save his friends from their own ugly demise is to replace them…to take the natural consequence for their poor decision. So he leaves his perfect home to come to the beautiful place he had created…that had once been perfect until his friend’s choice turned it upside down.

Longing to show his friend he is loved, he learns to be like him. He experiences all the pain, death, temptations, horrors and tears of being part of the icky place that is the result of life-altering choices.

And then, he does the most horrifying thing of all. He takes the complete punishment away. From now on….his friends no longer have to be perfect to enter his forever home. They only have to be his friend. He took the consequence away by taking it upon himself.

Now, all his friends can come home with him. Sadly, the continual consequences of the first creature’s choice now resonate among the once perfect world. Because God gave his friends total dominion over their home, they have destroyed it with their selfish desires.

The horror of this once breathtaking work of art is not by choice of the creator. It is only because he loved these friends of his so very much, that he wanted them to have all the freedom that he has.

He has 100% freedom and reign over his home and who he has friendship with. He made these creatures to be like him…to have 100% freedom and reign over their home, and whether they want to have friendship with him.

It was the creature’s choice. Life or death. They have chosen death. The priceless work of art now reaps the consequences.