Thursday, May 03, 2012

God's math

"God doesn't go by the kind of arithmetic that you and I go by. God has never learned to deal in fractions. God didn't get that far in school. I think he's like my father who had ten children, and many a time I thought, "Well, my goodness, with a family this big, Daddy can't love me very much. I can only claim one tenth of his love." But my father loved me with all of his love. It's just that way with love. There is no fraction in it. You can't break it up into pieces. And God wants the whole human race. He just can't deal in fractions.

And so Jesus is saying to these people who were griping and mumbling and grumbling about the fact that he was taking in all kinds of people, bums and drunks and the poor folks and everybody, he was saying, "Well, I just can't help it. God just has a sentimental attachment for his people. And, whether you like it or not, God loves 'em, and it does seem to me that if they're precious in God's sight, they ought to be precious in yours, too."

Clarence Jordan, Cotton Patch Parables of Liberation