Since God has lived forever and nobody has created Him, there must have been a time when God was on His own so-to-speak. I know, “God on His own” sounds a bit awkward. What I am trying to say is that before the Trinity created anything it was just the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit conversing with each other. At some point in time the Trinity decided to become parents. God wanted to have kids – knowing full well (to put it mildly) that it would upset the apple cart. God took that chance, and so He created living beings with a free will, angels, humans, animals, complete with a very complex universe, a star system that we call space and a home planet that we call Earth. And the rest is history.

Why would God set Himself up for heartache and pain? Ever since He created living beings there has been nothing but trouble: A small group of angels attempted to overthrow the existing government of the Trinity. Heaven has never been the same. War broke out, the coup d’état failed, and approximately one third of the angel population left to create their separate empire. Last I’ve heard: The relationship between the fallen angels and the Trinity has not yet been repaired.

You would think that this experience had to have influenced God’s decision to not have any more kids, however, that’s definitely not the case. In the aftermath of the revolutionary war the Trinity made plans for a new species; God decided (Genesis 1:26):

“Let us make man.”

We know what came out of that idea. Mankind left the Garden of Eden and ventured out on its own. Today’s world has people on speaking terms with God and people who are not. If we had a chance to interview God, one of the questions would certainly be: “Why did you expose yourself to so much pain by creating living beings with a free will who would spite You in Your face and hurt the world around them?” What do you think His answer would be?

If you are a parent and have several kids, some of them turned out decent adults, maybe some of them (or one of them) not so much. Would you regret ever becoming a parent? I believe answering this question puts us closer to the heart of God. God chose to become a parent because even though love hurts, according to His assessment, it’s well worth it. The joy outweighs the pain. The joy of resurrection outweighs the pain of the cross. That’s why love is willing to suffer. That’s why love goes the extra mile.

As soon as we love, we suffer. Love hurts. Everybody who decided to have kids will agree to that. Or ask anybody who fell in love and it didn’t work out. Or talk to pet owners – with a few exceptions, we are very likely surviving our pets; that means, as soon as we decide on a cute puppy or take in a stray cat, we set up our hearts to be broken. However, would we want to have it any other way? How about never having kids to spare us the worries and heartaches related to raising them? We could avoid animal shelters and pet stores for the rest of our lives to not even be tempted to bring one home. How about deciding to stay single? Our hearts wouldn’t be broken, or would they? Loneliness is a high price to pay!

Even though it may be painful, love is worth taking the risk. If you don’t believe me, take it from the One who has loved His creation from the beginning.