The Heart of God III

Paul Cozza

A Place in the Wilderness

The Heart of God III

© 2022 Paul Cozza

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Paul Cozza
A Place in the Wilderness

Email: paul@aplaceinthewilderness.com
Website: aplaceinthewilderness.com

Scripture quotations are from the
American Standard Version of the Bible (1901)
unless otherwise noted.

Cover design: Nuggitz Creative Services (Nuggitz.com)
Cover photo: Paul Cozza

The man sat by his office window, reading the epistle to the Hebrews in the Bible. Some birdfeeders and a birdbath were outside, embedded in lush foliage. Suddenly, as he was reading, a golden feline sprung high into the air, did a nearly unbelievable quick half-twist, and snatched a bird in midflight. The man immediately laid down his book and ran outside, hoping to somehow rescue that bird from the predator who had seized it.

Intervening

He shouted at the cat, “Carino, drop it! Drop it!” The cat receded into some rose bushes, but the man was not deterred. He went in after the bird. The startled cat dropped it and withdrew. The man stooped and picked up the tiny creature. It was still breathing.

The man was hopeful he might have saved the bird, since it still lived. However, other than its respiration, it was not moving. He examined the left side of the bird and noticed no damage, then gently turned it over in his hand. He saw a grievous wound on the little bird’s head, and immediately knew there was no way to save this one.

The man was pained and disturbed. What had this tiny creature done to warrant such an end? He waited for the bird to die in his hand, but it clung to life. How the man wished he had the authority and power to heal, but he did not.

The bird seemed to be unconscious. As the man looked at her—for it was a female Goldfinch, she opened one eye and then turned her head over, as if to show the man her deadly wound, seemingly pleading for the man to end her suffering. She then fell unconscious again.

The man was torn. He did not want to harm the bird, but neither did he want her to suffer any longer. He talked with his God, then reluctantly and with great sorrow ended that little bird’s suffering.

The man spoke to the now dead creature in his hand: “I owe you your life.” Then, with deep emotion, he spoke again to his God: “Lord, I cannot repay this debt. Would you pay it for me?”

Outrage

The man was outraged. He was not upset with God—he knew His heart far too well. It was not God's heart that this should happen. His Lord was far too kind and gentle to create such violence.

Although he was angry with the cat, he realized it also was not the true culprit. The real problem lay with the malicious and malevolent invisible forces that still held so much of this Earth in their evil grasp.

God never created the kind of evil and violence seen on the Earth today. His creation was a beautiful garden—full of peace, gently flowing waters, flowers, and creatures of all kinds. It was a place of splendor and serenity. But what is seen today has been usurped by evil powers.

The man knew the day would come when that evil would be eliminated and the whole Earth restored. But the man's heart went out to that poor little creature who had suffered so intensely and died. He took no pleasure in seeing God's creation suffer.

The man brought the now lifeless form into his house, and set it on a paper towel on his counter. He looked down at his hands and saw blood on them. In some way, it seemed appropriate.

Burial

After a short time, he went out to bury the creature. He dug a small hole, and as he dug, another cat—a large but young white one—came up affectionately to him, rubbing against his legs and wanting to play. She was a gentle being, and rarely caused any problems. But, the man was set on burying the bird.

As he did so, the cat repeatedly interfered, trying to draw away his attention. They are persistent, these cats, he thought. But he was just as persistent, repeatedly pushing her away to finish his task. He would feed the cat something in a little while, but not now.

He placed the dead bird into the hole and covered it with some stones, to help keep any predators from digging it up. Then he covered that with dirt and then some larger stones.

He stood over the grave, considering what to say. He wanted to give the little bird a name. Eventually, he decided to call her, Friend. Although he didn't know her, he considered the birds to be his friends, and she was one of them.

He knew God would not forget1 this little one—He remembers each one. But that did not assuage the man's pain over this little bird’s suffering. He knew he could turn from the pain, and probably blot out this whole experience from his being, but he did not want to. For some strange reason, he wanted and elected to carry that pain in his heart. It seemed to be the least he could do for God's wounded creation.

As he stood there, he sensed God—both Father and Son—smiling. It was not a smile of mirth, nor a smile of joy. But the man was too grief-stricken to pay much heed to the smile at that time.

Wrestling

For the rest of that day, the man wrestled with his experience. He cried out to God to do quickly what He wanted to do in this man’s heart so that He could then change what was going on around him. The man knew there was a heart lesson in this experience—a lesson he must learn, or the experience would be repeated again and again. Once the man's heart was changed, what went on around him would change as well. Change begins in the heart, and God had allowed this experience to facilitate that change.

He cried out to God to finish this current age and bring in the next. He cried out from his heart-pain for the Lord to come quickly. It was not pain for himself, but for a creation that is in an agony.

Seeing

Slowly, the man began to apprehend what was happening. He began to understand what God was saying to him through this experience, and why He was gently smiling. The man had prayed to know his divine Father's heart. Indeed, Jesus said2 eternal life is to know the Father—the only true God—and to know Jesus Christ, whom the Father sent. In a most unexpected way, God was answering the man’s prayer. He was showing him something of His own heart. And far more, He was bringing the man into the experience of what He Himself was passing through moment by moment.

If the man felt the agony of that one Goldfinch as it suffered and died, what did God feel? Moreover, what does God feel for the whole creation and for each individual creature that is suffering? What does God experience with those who are tortured, those who are suffering from disease, those who are injured, or those who are dismembered in the womb? What does God feel as souls suffer the pain of loneliness, the agony of loss, or the torment of sin? What is God's sensation as souls are destroyed?

Man of Sorrows

The man started to see something more in Isaiah’s words. Speaking about Christ, Isaiah called Him a “man of sorrows,”3 someone who was “acquainted with grief.” Jesus was not grieving because He was despised and rejected. His sorrow was for the condition of the world He had created. His grief was for the suffering so many—from among all the creatures—were enduring, and which He Himself bore with them. Jesus saw and did not turn away. Yet, so many hide their face from Christ and from what He is seeing. The man chose not to hide.

Sharing

God had brought the man into a share—a minute share—of God's own suffering. And just as God would not turn from His burden, so it seemed proper to the man to bear it as well. In the midst of that pain, there was a kind of inexplicable rightness—something that seemed to heal the man's own heart in some way. Once he was blind, but then he began to see.

The Smile

In a situation like this, the evil one would say any smile is that of a sadistic tormentor torturing its victims. But this projection of his own evil persona, by attempting to label God as such a malicious being, is a ruse that this man would not accept, nor should any of his Christian brothers and sisters.

Rather, God’s smile was one of recognition, acceptance, and welcome. The man seemed to sense the conversation between the Father and the Son as they smiled, though there was sadness there:

“He knows.”

“Yes, he sees now.”

“And he is feeling what we are.”

“Yes, he is one with us.”

“How encouraging and heartwarming.”

Realization

It is an easy thing to hide from the truth, to bury one's head in the sand so as to not see. The truth does not change, but the heart of the one hiding does. How few there are who do not hide, who are willing to look with clear eyes about them, see the suffering and agony of the whole creation, and then realize and accept why that is. This exists because mankind has abdicated its position over the creation, and handed that authority to the evil one. Through that abdication, the evil one has been wreaking havoc and horrors of all kinds.

The Lesson

There is only one solution for mankind and for the believers specifically—to take back what is theirs, what God has given them: the creation. And the only way to do that is in and through Christ. Seeing the truth of mankind's great failure and the result of that failure, along with Christ's great victory, brings a soberness and determination to the Christian life.

Christian soberness concerns that which is trivial and that which is important. By realizing what is trivial, the believers are enabled in Christ to let go of, put aside, and forget the insignificant things of the self, of the self’s little sphere of influence, and of the world. When the things of importance are known, the believers seek to lay hold of Christ in every part of their being and every part of their lives—in all they are and all they do.

Christian determination is the persistent seeking of Christ under all circumstances and conditions until the Lord has accomplished all that is in His heart to do within the believers. Whether up or down, happy or sad, joyous or grieved, in day or night, summer or winter, determination presses forward and upward.

What is the true Christian living? It is the determined, day-by-day gaining of Christ at every opportunity.4 It is to gain that for which the believers have been gained by Christ,5 and reach the goal for which they were created. It is to attain that to which they have been called in Christ, striving toward that goal with great resolve of heart and focus of mind.

Responsibility

Christians have a responsibility. They have been called out of the world to share in all that God is and to reign over all the Earth for God. It is through this that God’s enemy—who is the source of all the suffering on Earth—will be eliminated. And it is through God's matured sons that the whole creation will be illuminated and blessed.

Luke 12:6 Are not five sparrows sold for two pence? and not one of them is forgotten in the sight of God.

John 17:3 And this is life eternal, that they should know thee the only true God, and him whom thou didst send, even Jesus Christ.

Isaiah 53:3 He was despised, and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and as one from whom men hide their face he was despised; and we esteemed him not.

Philippians 3:8 Yea verily, and I count all things to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but refuse, that I may gain Christ,

Philippians 3:12 Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect: but I press on, if so be that I may lay hold on that for which also I was laid hold on by Christ Jesus.