He Waits

 The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and of great kindness.

 - From Psalm 145

We have a pretty good answer here, to the question, "Why would a loving God . . . ?"

First of all, He did not want to create robots. We have a will. And when you think about it, a will is not worth much, unless it's capable of being willful. And a willful person is, basically, a self-centered person. 

So many layers of complexity to the human spirit:

 - Selfish
 - Self-aware
 - Capable of compassion
 - Can handle complex problems
 - Self-interest can be good for the community
 - Capable of violent response, when called for
 - Driven by a desire for peace
 - In the natural state, not capable of taming all of his or her demons.

There's a pruning process. We have to go through the forge of life. We must be given the chance to make mistakes, to learn empathy, to grow. But growth gains value by being accompanied by pain. 

Some of this is easy to access. Some of it must be accepted on its face.

So far, it has taken us somewhere around ten thousand years of history, just to get this far. And in our generation we have something - the Internet - that seems capable of delivering to us the kind of knowledge that ruined Adam and Eve: too much knowledge, too many images, too many thoughts entering our minds - too many of which are desperately evil thoughts - without the wisdom and social maturity. 

It's like we have to fail, utterly, to realize our need for God. 

But He waits. He hates our evil. But He is patient. He's like a doting parent. "Maybe if I just wait a little longer . . . they'll get it."

Believe it or not, He's slow to anger. We deserve judgment now. But God puts it off, another day, another year, another century. 

"Give them a little more time."