We all can think of times when we were sad. Sometimes it was because someone we loved was hurt. Sometimes it was because someone refused our love. Other times we were sad because we did not get our way.
Let me talk about this third sadness.
As a child I pouted a lot. Just ask my older siblings. Sometimes this pouting occurred because I wanted one thing but was not allowed it. When I didn’t get my way it was joined with a belief and thought that no one understood me, or worse, they didn’t care for me. Sadness engulfed my heart during those times, not because I was concerned about others but because I was concerned about me. When I didn’t get my way there was often no one to comfort me, or so I thought. I wanted to fix me by my standard. Looking back, that was a tiny hell.
The sadness of the Father is nothing like a pouty sadness. The sadness of the Father could be most linked to when you and I are sad when we see others hurting themselves. Because of their own choices bad things are happening. We can’t help not because we are incapable of helping but because they refuse help. This sadness has a glimpse of the sadness that Jesus had when he wept over Jerusalem (Matt 23:37ff). Tears roll down his cheeks because Jerusalem refused to be helped. Jerusalem only wanted Jerusalem’s help. It is the refusal of his love that saddens the heart of God. He is saddened not because he gets hurt. He is saddened because we choose to hurt ourselves by refusing his generous and ever open heart of joy and love.
The heart of the Father has loved us into being, loved us into existence. Once we are created, he continues to love us into greatness. No one becomes great without opening up to God’s care and blessing. The more we actively receive his love and his will, and actively reject the thoughts and lies that attack his love within us, the bigger the heaven we will live in. Already now. Before we die.