If God had Facebook.

This post is meant to be tongue in cheek... Hope it's not blasphemous, but I think it needs to be said.

I have a love/hate relationship with Facebook.  I love it because it's a fun way to connect with people.  To keep in touch with people you don't get to see much, see how their kids have grown and what is going on in everybody's life.  I like to post my own pics and sadly yes I want to see how many likes I get.  I like to rant on the homeschool page about how crazy school is.  I like to share these little posts on FB, hoping that they will encourage someone out there.   I like to laugh at memes and roll my eyes as political post that I disagree with and pump my fist with those I do agree with.   I like to share funny poop stories or crazy things my kids say.  I like to post date night pics with my boo, laughing hysterically with him cuz we tried 75 times to get the perfect selfie and people are now staring at us.  I really do love FB.

I also HATE Facebook.  I hate the way it makes me envy other people who look more glamorous than I do.  I hate seeing someone else's success and feeling like my life is less than.  Seeing a friend post pics with other friends leaves me jealous and confused.  Reading about others children's success when my kid has been struggling with learning to read and another struggles with math.  I hate seeing happy family pics, but knowing the back story and feeling sad that it's really not so happy.  I hate how those political posts from both sides just seem to divide us so much that we forget that we have more in common than not.  I feel envious when I see my friends on vacation again and I haven't had a real vacation in 13 years...  I really do hate FB sometimes. 

We put our best "face" on FB.  We take a 100 pics to get the best one.  We tell our accomplishments and achievements and relish in the applause.  I say "WE", because I very much include myself in this.  We take those date night selfies, but we don't post about that fight we had last night.  We show our kids with a trophy, but we don't tell the world that they are failing math.  We take those happy family photos, but we never share how hard we are trying to keep it all together.  It feels like we are all telling half truths, just part of the story and it's hard to remember that the happy, glamour, and achievements are only half of the story. 

I have to tell you FB does not leave me feeling very happy or full of hope, but you know what does?  The Bible.  I started thinking...  If God had a FB what would he post??? 

From the beginning God has told us the whole ugly story of his family.   His pictures don't just show the big happy family.  Chapter 3 starts out with a man, a women, and a serpent making some really bad choices.  God lets us know from the beginning that his family is far from perfect.  He's not like us who hide the fact that our kid is in jail again.  He tells the whole story and you know what, it makes me feel better about myself.  If God's children are dysfunctional and he still loves them, then I guess he really can love me too.  That gives me hope.

A few posts later on God's FB he posts a pic of a flood a rebellious, violent generation of people who were bent on nothing but wickedness.  He even says "every imagination of their heart is wickedness"...  I wouldn't be too proud of that.  I definitely wouldn't share it with the world.

Not too long into God's story line we see He's chosen this man and wants to use him to bless the world through the future generations of his family...  I'm totally thinking this guy has to be one special person, but when I read about him I'm not so impressed.  He's just an average guy and God tells mostly about his mistakes and how He (God) keeps coming to his rescue and working things out for him.  You wouldn't find that on your newsfeed today.

Abraham has some of the most dysfunctional offspring I have read about...  Brothers trying to kill brothers, sons killing a whole town of people to get revenge, brothers selling a brother into slavery and lying to their father for 20 years saying that he was killed by wild animals.  Then Judah (whom God has chosen to send the messiah through) has 2 sons that are so wicked that they are killed before they can pass on their seed...  Judah's promised seed comes through his daughter inlaw, who plays the harlot, to trick Judah into sleeping with her.  These are not the stories we would put on our FB.

I could go on and on.  There's David, the man after God's own heart, the one who committed adultery, got her pregnant, and had her husband killed.   There is Aaron the priest, who erects a golden cow for the Israelites to worship.   There is Samson the hero of Israel, who allows his lust for beautiful women to destroy him.    When I read the Bible and see the whole ugly truth my hope is restored, my joy renewed.   I'm so thankful that God is not like me...  If he were he would have left out all the bad stuff and then I would ever be striving for perfection in my own life. 

If God had a FB I think he would share the good, the bad, and the ugly.  I think he would leave me SMH at the antics of his children.  I think I would like his posts because they were real and they wouldn't make me feel bad about my life.  I would follow God's page because I would see how amazing his grace is and know that he totally gets all my problems... He's seen them before.  I would know that I don't have it all together and that my life is a mess, but so is everyone else's!!!

God doesn't have a FB, but he does have a love letter that we should get into, like and share with others.  God's word brings hope to the hopeless, strength to the weak, courage to the fearful.  God's word is the light in the darkness.  The Bible is God's FB...  like, follow, share!