God at Work: God Responds

We have come in contact with so many children and some adults that are immovable that it is easy to see God this way. After all, so many of our theological beliefs rely on an immovable God—a God who is unchanging, basically static and rigid. Yet the Scriptures suggest that actually even God can be affected by us. For years God had promised the people that God would be the people's God, the center of their universe, their protector, their king. Now the people had seen other communities who had kings, and they felt they were missing out. The grass was greener. So they complained, they pleaded, they whined, and they argued with Samuel that a king was necessary to govern them. And God responded to them.

God's gracious response—this willingness by God to bend toward God's children—communicates a marvelous grace, one that keeps us off balance, as we realize that God cannot be contained by theological statements or systems but is boundless in love and faithfulness. All this because God is in relationship with us and longs to respond to us.