Divine Heartbreak

When we launch out into a reading of Genesis, we quickly run into words that speak of divine sorrow.  And while there may be more, there are two places which reveal a broken hearted God.  The first is set forth in the Garden of Eden story.  Genesis 3:8 describes that moment of the "Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze."  When the Lord God finds the Garden of Eden couple hiding, there is a conversation, a reluctant confession, and then we hear the heartbreak of God in those words, "What is this that you have done?"  (Genesis 3:13)   

The second incident of divine heartbreak has as its setting the story of Noah.  As the Lord God ponders the wickedness present everywhere on the earth, the Word says, "And the Lord was sorry that He had made humankind on the earth, and it grieved Him to His heart."  (Genesis 6:6)  Fortunately, He took a second look and saw a righteous and blameless man named Noah.  (Genesis 6:9).  In both stories, it is more than a pointing out of human sin, but a carefully made plan gone awry.  The sorrow was not just for Adam, Eve, and Noah, but for a plan of love than was shattered before it was hardly in place.     

Thinking about God responding to our sin with grief and sorrow is not something we often consider.  It is easier for us to consider God's anger or disappointment when we sin.  We seldom  think about God being heartbroken over the way we choose to live, but as surely as He loves us, so is He heartbroken when He sees the way we regard Him and His plan for us.  We know how much sorrow and grief we feel when our children choose wrong paths from which we cannot deliver them.  How much greater must be the sorrow and grief of God when we choose a way other than the way He has planned for us.