Ten Gifts

Before we get to the specifics of the list, the ten commandments usually hit us on more general terms.  We naturally bristle at being told what we can and cannot do.  We don’t really like having our preferences challenged or our sacred independence limited by an outsider.  We want to do what we want to do and chase after the things we are sure will take away the gnawing need inside and bring us happiness.   A list of rules handed to us just isn’t much to our liking. 

Our first error is that we trip over its specifics without having gotten to the bigger reason He gave them.

This Designer who made mankind and whose delighted reaction immediately afterward was that this part of His creation was very good, formed us with depth and emotion and an ability to respond to Him and all of life around us.  But with that amazing gift for living widely also came a vulnerability in us to be enamored by things that couldn’t really meet our inner longings, and if they satisfied us in the beginning, would pull many of us into their steely web, letting us discover too late that we’d been imprisoned.  The evening news is full of stories of adventures gone down the back alleys of selfishness or deception.

He knew how quickly and easily we would have our eyes dimmed, our hearts infected, our thoughts askew, and our consciences compromised.  He didn’t want us to suffer for chasing the things He knew would do sometimes irreparable damage, for we couldn’t always find our way back out of the maze we had entered.  And so He gave us clear warnings of the things that would do such damage to us.  We couldn’t see the provision that it was, though we would more readily receive such beneficial direction in other contexts…weather warnings of blizzards or ice storms or tornado or tsunamis coming, detour signs on roads where bridges are out, instructional manuals that come with electrical appliances.  All those are things we acknowledge are for our protection and well-being.  But with the things of the heart, we so easily resist guidance for what will keep us whole.

This God dared to form us with a great capacity for emotions and it has not been without risk.  We have all suffered from wayward hearts.  And yet what would have been the value to Him of making small robots who only followed on command without choice.  He was a passionate enough God to take the chance.