You can have a relationship with a person, but you can not have a relationship with an idea.
The above declaration reminds me of an episode in my life, during which I was introduced to a person, and soon after the introduction, the person moved to another continent. The person and I started communicating through the written and verbal media. And an assumption on one or either party developed that we were in love with each other. Whereas, in reality we were in love with the idea of love. Some time passed, and we got to spend time with one another, then we came to the realisation that we were not in love with each other, but that, we were in love with the ‘idea’ of love. Thus you can have a relationship with a person , but not with an idea.
Religion teaches us about the idea or concept of our God. Religious books are mostly words written on paper, dead, with no life in them. Developing a relationship with another person, involves both parties choosing to invest time and effort. It involves Choice on both parties, which is why if you choose to have a relationship with an idea, there is no reciprocity. However, in the case of relationship with God, the Scriptures tells us that God is Spirit, and since you need a person to have a relationship with, therefore God provided a solution for that, He came as a person. And presto, you have God as a person or “Image”, known as Jesus Christ, God came with all His Fullness to dwell with us, not as an angel bearing good news ‘Angel Gabriel’, and not as an angel to fight or conquer, ‘Angel Michael’, and not as an angel to avenge or punish or kill, such as the angel of death that killed all the firstborn in Egypt in the time of Moses, but He came as Emmanuel to dwell with us and give us the opportunity of having a relationship with Him, to enable ‘mutual choice’ on the part of both parties.
On His part, He gave us the Greatest Gift of Salvation, and we are also allowed to make a choice of whether or not to accept the Gift and have a relationship with Him as a person. Since no one can have a relationship with an idea or concept. Your choice, between an idea and a person. Are you looking for gifts or the Giver of gifts?
