As we were sitting, my daughter asks me "Do you love me always?" I said "yes". She then asked me, "what if I do something really bad and I go to jail". I said "Yes, because you will always be my daughter" and I also indicated that I will be angry at the moment, and sad that you will have to suffer the consequences of your action.

    My interactions with my daughter and my kids at work brings me into moments of reflection on the nature of God as love, but at the same time very serious about sin. What would it mean for me to love my daughter through her bad decisions and through bad times. I guess it would mean not disowning her and starting to tell her and others that she is not my daughter. I may be angry at her but I may not revoke a relationship which really cannot be revoked anyway. To be a father who reflects the image of God, I must be a maintainer of my relationship with her. I believe that this is good advice in all our relationships (with children, spouses, friends, etc.), that we hold it sacred, not doing anything to break it, and doing all we can to maintain our relationships.

    Thinking about God, what does it mean that he is a maintainer of relationships? I think about the passage that says "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?" This would not be comforting if it just means God is keeping us company. It means that God is using his power to work things together for good for those who love him and are his people, as he walks with his people through their sufferings.  

    There are debates within Christianity over whether a person can be saved (cleansed from sin and going to heaven) and then turn away and become unsaved (not cleansed from sin and going to hell). People philosophize about this matter but the down to earth question is "Will God maintain relationship no matter what?" Scriptures seem to indicate that he does not revoke his relationships, and proves it by reconciling his disobedient people to himself, forgiving them and dying for them. 

     This truth that God is a maintainer of relationships lifts up the idea that God is love. It is not true to the revelation of God to present him as a wrathful being who is ready to destroy humanity. However, there are passages that show God as needing to be propitiated or revealing his wrath. How can these two ideas of God being love and being wrathful be reconciled? 

     I think we can start by rethinking the object of God's love. The object of God's love is not the person as an individual to the exclusion of everything else. He also loves his creation, other peoples, human societies, the order he ordained for creation. Therefore, when he confronts in judgment, he is responding out of his love for what sin has destroyed. He is responding out of his desire to heal the individual from his fallen will, and to heal the world from the systems that enslave it. God is a restorer of his creation, not just individuals.

     As I thought about the scenario my daughter is presenting, what could be possible responses from me. I could hide her from the consequences of her actions, which would show that my love for my daughter trumps everything else. That action will show that my love is disordered, it is idolatry. God's interest, which is peace and justice in community, is being ignored. I would not be acting as a person made in the image of God. To act as a person made in God's image, I should also love the community that my daughter damaged by her actions. This means that I should let justice take its course, because justice brings some peace. I should also call her to repent of her sinful will that destroys community around her, and that destroys her as she becomes alienated to community. A person who cares only about his close interests is falling away from the image of God. A person who is growing in valuing all of humanity/creation is getting closer to the image of God. He is being deified.