No one’s life goes perfectly. All of us have things we can regret... qualities in ourselves, things we do, things that happen. But God really can wipe away our tears. If we choose to follow the Lord, we will be happy. That's how it works.
The following sermon on the subject, by Rev. Eric Carswell, is based on Revelation 21:1-4, and on a related story in John 9:1-7, where Jesus heals a blind man.
And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away." (Revelation 21:3-4)
We do not live in a perfect world. While there is much joy and happiness, tears of sadness are shed every day. While there is much to rejoice in, there is also tragic death, sorrow, and crying. Human beings can be wonderfully caring and helpful and they can be horribly hateful and destructive. There is much for which we can be grateful and there is much that we can easily wish were different.
There is a part of our perspective on life that strongly asserts that loving means protecting from harm and sadness. We can wonder why if the Lord God is all powerful, all knowing, and perfectly loving He hasn’t created a world in which there is less harm and less sadness. Why doesn’t He prevent the evil things that can occur?
Some people look at tragic and harmful events in the same way that the disciples looked at the man who had been born stricken with blindness. They assumed it had to a punishment for someone’s sin. They asked the Lord whether the sin was the man’s or his parents. They assumed that it had to have been sent by God because He believed it was a just and appropriate consequence. The Lord answered that it wasn’t the result of anyone’s sin and stated that it occurred “that the works of God should be revealed in him.” (John 9:3) The Lord then healed the blind man. The Lord never sends harm or punishment to anyone. He never desires that anyone should suffer. His effort is constantly one of trying to bring about healing and health. His effort is to bring as much happiness to each human being as that person can possibly receive.
Part of the misery that exists in this world does so because people believe they are acting on behalf of God by seeking the harm, even horrendous pain, of others who are viewed as bad or evil. Such people feel completely justified in their terrible deeds because they believe God looks with anger and brings avenging punishment on people who do or say the wrong things, or even just belong to a different religion and call God by a different name. Some of the bloodiest conflicts have occurred with this perspective being held by both sides of the conflict.
Some people think that God, because of His power, should always get His way and that everything should happen exactly as He would wish it to. But this is a flawed view of power and carries with it a flawed view of nature of true love. Do wisely loving parents have children, even very young children, who always do exactly what the parent wants them to do? Even more to the point, do wisely loving parents even try to make their children do everything as the parent would wish? They do not. Consider the qualities of true love such as the Lord has for us as these qualities are defined in the teachings of the New Church.
Three things constitute the essence of God's love: His loving others who are outside of Himself, His wanting to be one with them, and His blessing them from Himself.... (True Christian Religion 43)
These three qualities of the Lord’s love are profound in their implications. They are the foundation of creation both of this world and the life after death. They are the basis for why human beings are born in this natural world, live here for a shorter or longer time and then transition to live to eternity in their freely chosen home in the next life either in heaven or in hell.
The first essential of the Lord’s love explains why He created human beings.
The first essential, God's loving others outside Himself, is recognizable in God's love for the entire human race. And as those who love the purpose also love the means, God also loves all the other things He created, because they are the means.
All people and all things in the universe are outside God, in that they are finite and God is infinite. God's love goes out and extends not only to good people and good things but also to evil people and evil things. It goes not only to the people and things that are in heaven but also to those that are in hell - not only to Michael and Gabriel but also to the Devil and Satan, for God is the same everywhere from eternity to eternity. As He says, "He makes his sun rise on good people and evil people, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust" (Matthew 5:45).
Despite this, evil people and things are still evil. This is a result of what is in the people and the objects themselves. Evil people and things do not receive the love of God as it truly and most profoundly is; they receive the love of God according to their own nature, much the way thorns and nettles receive the heat from the sun and the rain from the sky. (True Christian Religion 43)
For some people it would be a surprise to hear that the Lord loves the evil people who have chosen hell as their eternal home. They cannot imagine what they understand to be the life there as being anything but a Divine punishment. But evil spirits in a hellish community are where they are because it is where they can have as much simple delight as is possible for them. They would be tortured if they even remotely approached a heavenly community. While evil spirits are not truly happy compared to the angels, nevertheless they want to be where they are in spite of its frustrations and limitations.
The second essential of the Lord’s love explains why human freedom is so important. There can be no true relationship of love between the Lord and each of us unless we freely choose to enter into a relationship with Him through loving what He loves and thinking, saying and doing the things that follow the wisdom He would bring to our lives.
The second essential of God's love, His wanting to be one with others, is recognizable in His relationship of love with the angelic heaven, with the church on earth, with everyone in the church, and with everything good and true that forms and constitutes an individual and a church. In fact, seen in its own right, love is nothing but an effort to forge a loving relationship. In order to fulfill the purpose intended by the essence of His love, God created human beings in His own image and likeness - characteristics with which He could forge a loving relationship.
Divine love constantly aims to forge a loving relationship with us, as is clear from the Lord's saying that He wants to be one with people, He in them and they in him, and He wants the love of God to be in them (John 17:21-22, 23, 26). (True Christian Religion 43)
When we as free human beings choose to love the Lord then the third essential of His love can be fulfilled. He can bring eternal happiness and inner peace to our lives.
The third essential of God's love, his blessing others from Himself, is recognizable in eternal life, which is the unending blessedness, good fortune, and happiness that God gives to those who let his love in. As God is love itself, He is also blessedness itself; and as every love exudes pleasure, so divine love eternally exudes blessedness itself, good fortune itself, and happiness itself. God gives these blessings to angels and people after death through His relationship of love with them. (True Christian Religion 43)
The nature of the Lord’s love can be seen from its reflection in wise love among human beings as spoken of in the following passage:
Every person is created that he may live forever in a state of happiness. This follows as a consequence; for He who wills that each person should live forever also wills that he should live in a state of happiness. What would eternal life be without that? All love desires the good of another. The love of parents desires the good of their children; the love of the bridegroom and of the husband desires the good of the bride and of the wife; and friendship's love desires the good of friends. What then does the Divine Love not desire? What is good but delight? And what is Divine Good but eternal happiness? All good is called good from its delight or happiness. That which is given and possessed is indeed called good, but unless it is also delightful it is a barren good, not good in itself. Hence it is clear that eternal life is also eternal happiness. This state of a person is the end of creation; and it is not the Lord's fault but a person's that only those who enter heaven are in that state. (Divine Providence 324)
Consider what would happen in this world if a mother watched over every tiny detail her daughter’s life, hovering to prevent physical injury, to minimize mistreatment by others, to ensure that the daughter didn’t make any choices that would bring sadness or harm to her. Would such a girl grow up healthy and happy? Or would she grow up feelings scared and incompetent and/or resentful and defiant of the mother’s care?
While we can see the need for human freedom, even the opportunity to make mistakes on an individual scale, when great tragedy strikes we can still wonder why the Lord didn’t intervene to prevent it. We, of course, don’t have any idea of how many tragedies the Lord does prevent. Nevertheless, if God was supposed to intervene to prevent great harm, how small would a tragedy or disaster have to be before God, as it were, let it go and allowed it to happen? Given His infinite power, presence, and knowledge, He is capable of directing the tiniest part of our lives. He could control us like robots if He wanted to. He could send instant pain the moment we contemplated doing something harmful. If He operated the universe in this way our lives would not be blessed, but instead we would be in nearly constant dread of being punished for reasons we sometimes wouldn’t even understand.
It should be quite clear that the Lord does not want terrible tragedies including the horror of war to occur.
It is not from the Divine Providence that wars occur, because they involve murders, lootings, violence, cruelties and other terrible evils which are diametrically opposed to Christian charity. Still they cannot but be permitted because, since the time of the most ancient human beings... people's life's love has become such that it wills to rule over others, and finally over all; and also to possess the wealth of the world, and finally all wealth. These two loves cannot be kept in fetters, for it is according to the Divine Providence that everyone is allowed to act from freedom in accordance with reason; and [if evil was not permitted] a person cannot be led from it by the Lord, and consequently cannot be reformed and saved. If evils were not allowed to occur, people would not see them and therefore would not acknowledge them, and thus could not be induced to resist them. This is the reason why evils cannot be repressed by any act of Providence; for if they were they would remain shut in, and like a disease, such as cancer and gangrene, they would spread and consume everything vital in a person. (Divine Providence 251)
It is the Lord’s constant desire to bring about our spiritual improvement. It is His constant desire to bring us to that state of life that is reflected in the word of the book of Revelation. “And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” (Revelation 21:4) But this will not take place with a person until the previous statement has also been fulfilled. “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God.” (Revelation 21:3) To receive the happiness and peace that the Lord wants for each of us, we must freely invite Him into our lives. We invite the Lord in by learning what He teaches and trying to live according to His commands with His help. It will not take place in a moment or with a single decision. The Lord will gradually lead us to see the evil loves and false ideas that we’ve held as good and true and as our own. He will lead us to see them and to recognize that we want these things far from our intentions, thoughts, words, and deeds. As we flee from these destructive qualities, allow ourselves to be turned to the Lord.
We do not live in a perfect world. There will be times that we mourn the impact of evil on ourselves and those whom we care about. But may we know for sure that the Lord does not send this evil as punishment. May we be sure that its occurrence is not due to the Lord’s inattention or lack of concern. May we do what we can to grow spiritually as individuals. May we seek to help this world be the best it can be and may we look forward with hope and trust to that better world the Lord has prepared for us. AMEN.
Divine Providence 327
Arcana Caelestia 6669[6]
