The Dark Side of God

God is holding back. We are all missing out on beautiful, awesome, things. Adam and Eve were struck to the core when they ate the forbidden fruit because it was good. They doubted God’s character enough to test him. But instead of finding a bitter fruit they found one good for eating. God had withheld this good thing. With every colorful plant, flower, fruit, waterfall, gemstone, all of the animals—the entire world—given to mankind as a gift, God asked him to leave one fruit from his lips. This was the essence of the eternal problem. “God is God and we are not” (Robert Barron). There is always more. If we do not trust him then he can have nothing to do with us; our relationship is impossible. He is holding back very good things precisely because he is good. He is good, and he is infinite. If he gives you a billion tons of anything he’s holding back infinity more because he has no end. He placed the forbidden fruit in the middle of the garden because this problem was inevitable. Why avoid it? It’s coming. No one can escape this unknown, this eternity. We cannot take him all in. The fabric of our existence cannot endure him without his own blood. “⁶ And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him." (Heb 11:6-NIV). This is the thing that matters. Nothing matters more. Do you trust him? 1John 1:5 “...God is light, in him there is no darkness at all.” Darkness is as light to him (Psalm 139:12). But for us, now, the only way forward is to trust him—even the parts we cannot see, for he cannot be measured, tested or verified like a thing less than a man.