His story 17: God does not control us

When we look at life I think it is questionable to assume that God controls it all.
I am not saying that He cannot control it.
I am not saying that He does not have all power and ability to control every detail of our lives.
I am also not saying that He is going to let things go on the way they are forever.
Yet I believe that initially God gave the earth to people.
In the bible we read that God ordered man to submit the earth and to replenish it.
That means it was our responsibility to take care of it well.
Of course God still has all power and He can easily override our decisions.
Yet initially He chooses not to.
Even when we make mistakes and choose the wrong things.
God is not interested in robots.
He wants our free love and obedience.
An obedience that flows from love, not from pressure.
He does not need our submission.
Yet He wants it because it is for our own good that we obey.
But also because He cannot have a loving relationship with us if we rebel against him.
How can you be close to someone you rebel against?
That does not work right?
And God wants to be so close to us that we will always know how much He cares for us.
He is not a distant God.
He takes pleasure in interacting with us like any good parent enjoys spending time with their children.
In that sense we really are made in his image.
Like children initially come from an expression of love so God made us to express his love.
We cannot earn anything from him.
This also means that we cannot fail him because our existence did not came forth from or depends on our behavior.
Yet this does not mean our actions do not have consequences.
Now that does not mean that all of a sudden we have to earn our right to stay alive or to be healthy or succesful or anything. Life really is a gift.
We do not have to start earning the love of God at any point of our lives.
No matter whether we lived a decent and obedient live or whether we rebelled against him in any way possible.
Love still cannot be earned.
It never can.
We might have all kinds of conditions before we show our love to someone but God is not like that.
He does not withold his love from us when we disobey.
It may feel like it though because as children we do not always understand his dealings with us.
His discipline that is for our own good.
His ways to get rid of our toxic behavior that greatly damages life on this earth.
He will not keep tolerating it forever although He is and has been extremely patient with us.
He loves us deeply and that is exactly the reason why He will not tolerate our destructive ways for all eternity.
We may enjoy our rebellious living for a moment yet it will always have a destroying effect on us and those around us. But often we are not aware of it.