This is part of the 9/11 series with the tenth anniversary of that tragic day.

There is a theory about God that says he really has a thing for clocks. It’s called “The Clockmaker.” It basically says that God built a massive clock called The Universe, he wound it up, and then he just took a step back to watch it tick away. The big deal in this Clockmaker theory is that the Clockmaker doesn’t touch the clock again after he winds it up. In short, it means God made us and then never got involved with us again. He is as impersonal as a clockmaker is to his clock.

However, biblical accounts tell a very different story. According to the Gospels (which means “good news”) the Creator came and lived among the created. Actually, I really think God already knew what it was like to be a man because he is God and he knows everything. But God is so cool that he wanted to prove to us that he knew what it was like to be us, so he became a man! That was Jesus.

Don’t lose track because here because we see that God (who became a man) actually cares.

Check this story out in John 11 (NIV) about Lazarus, but instead of thinking of it as Jesus raising the dead (which is awesome) think about how much he really cares.  It starts talking about Lazarus’s sister:

³³ When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. ³⁴ “Where have you laid him?” he asked.

“Come and see, Lord,” they replied.

³⁵ Jesus wept.

³⁶ Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”

³⁷ But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”

³⁸ Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance.

TIME OUT!

Jesus was: 1) deeply moved in spirit 2) troubled 3) wept 4) loved 5) once more deeply moved

Jesus was actually troubled! Even though he could raise the guy from the dead, he was troubled that everyone else was so upset.

“The Clockmaker” saw that his creation was messed up.  He went down and not only got involved in it, but he actually was upset about the stuff they were upset about, even when he could totally fix it.  So the answer is: God does care.

So, yesterday we talked about God gave us freewill to invent bad things or do good things.  Today we find out he cares.  Great. God gives us a choice and he cares.  So then where is God when bad things happen?  We will explore that tomorrow.

First, what times in your life have you realized that God is there, getting involved in what you do?  What was an instance that caused you to realize that God cares?