It happens every time.
Whenever I read that G-d created the world, I can’t get past the big question: ‘Why?’
Why would an Infinite Being have created this finite reality? What’s the point in weak humans chasing happiness for the years of life that they’re granted?
Why do I keep asking myself the same question? Because I really enjoy the answer: G-d created this world out of love.
Prior to creation, G-d’s Oneness reigned Supreme. There was no other existence - only G-dliness. Then G-d decided to create an ‘other’.
We – you and I - are that ‘other’.
But G-d wasn’t simply fracturing existence, creating a world of disunity and ‘otherness’. G-d was creating an opportunity for us. G-d was giving us the possibility to [re]create Oneness on a more profound level.
Because there are different types of ‘Oneness’.
For example, I am a single being with limbs and organs; so my arm, my leg, my spleen all come together to make me one whole human being. Then there’s a deeper type of oneness, like the oneness of marriage, when two spouses become one. Why is that deeper?
Because my arm has no choice but to be part of my body; that’s its natural state.
When two people get married, they’re each rising above their natural, self-involved state, choosing to create the Oneness they share. They’re actively deciding to set aside the ‘I‘ for the ‘we’.
That’s a profoundly beautiful Oneness, one we celebrate with the institution of marriage. Well, that’s how it works with us and G-d. G-d created us as separate from Him, so that we might choose to find Oneness with Him.
Each of our lives is actually its own ‘Love Story,’ part of a vibrant, growing relationship between G-d and humanity.
A Chassidic Rebbe was once asked: “Where can one find G-d?” The Rebbe answered: Wherever you let Him in”. ‘Letting the other in’ is the key to a relationship with G-d, just like it is in a relationship with a spouse.
G-d wants an intimate relationship with each of us. But intimate relationships don’t happen on their own. It takes two to want the relationship; two to choose it.
G-d has already made His choice. Now it’s up to me and you.
So are you writing your own Divine Love Story?