why be God?

Unlike ancient myths, the Hebrew Bible never explains why God creates humans. Jack Miles, in God: A Biography, suggests that God is incapable to recognizing God's self. So, God creates humans in God's image, to be like a mirror through which God can see God.

Unfortunately, those early humans immediately disobey God. When Adam and Eve eat from the Tree of Knowledge, God turns them out of the Garden. God's relationship with humankind, God's beloved creation, doesn't get better. The people in Noah's generation are so wicked that God must wipe them out; then the same thing happens to the people of S'dom and Gemorrah.

When God finally picks Abraham and his descendants, they fail God in new ways. Shortly after God's revelation at Mount Sinai, the People of Israel decide to make an idol of a molten calf. God is enraged, and thinks of destroying Israel to make a new covenant with Moses alone. The process of God trusting new people, only to regret God's faith, continues throughout the Hebrew Scriptures.

As a mentor pointed out to me, God is the most disappointed character in the whole Bible. So, I had a strange thought: Why did God want to be God? Why did God start creating at all? Was God lonely? I don't have an answer. I suspect it has something to do with God needing to understand God's self through humanity.

This seems to fit with my growing sense of awe about the world ("Wonder", January 4, '08). Maybe the question isn't, Why is there evil in the world?, but Why is there good in the world? Why is there anything? It's a miracle we get to be here at all. God has a demanding, frustrating and thankless job. Maybe we need to start being more grateful.