This past Saturday night I was a little nervous thinking about the fact that I had to teach Sunday School the following morning. I had "stepped up" to teach a series in the month of February on LOVE. I wanted a little reassurance on my lesson, so I began to discuss the topic with my 14 year old. We were talking about God's sadness at how the human race was turning out in the old testament. We talked about how the very thing that Lucifer feared, the thing that caused him to be cast out of heaven had happened. Then, my 14 year old asks me this question, " Do you think Lucifer still loves God?" Wow! I never thought about that. I said that Lucifer/Satan is the epitome of evil. Then she says that she believes he does still love God. That the temptation of man is to show God that man is a flawed creation, to prove his original point more or less, very much like a spurned child would try to prove to a parent that they were right and to earn favor back. The following morning we posed the same question to my 17 year old. Without knowing what her sister had said she answered the same way and for the same reasons. I guess it's not always the parent who is doing the teaching to the child. What a pleasant surprise when it is the other way around. ...The sculpture in the photo is by Guillaume Geef. I chose it because I think we forget that Lucifer is an angel. This image is so beautiful. I think that is important to remember. If temptation was ugly or scary, we wouldn't so easily fall prey to it.
I agree with you that if temptation were ugly or scary, we wouldn't easily fall prey to it. The resulting consequences may be ugly, only we can't see past the initial pleasure or attractiveness to focus on the end result. Not so sure about Satan still loving God. He loves himself more than anything else and wants to be God. I don't see Satan as trying to earn favor with God. He is set on destruction not reconciliation.
ReplyDeleteBrenda S.