why sins hurt God

Lewis tells us in the February 13 selection from A Year with C.S. Lewis that Jesus did a very odd thing by going around forgiving people's sins. He's right. It's a very direct claim to divinity that He did this. But it also points to the fact that when we sin and hurt other people, we hurt God most of all (otherwise how can He forgive those sins?)

If you think of the relationship of a child to their parents, you see how God feels about our sins. When a loving parent sees their child do the wrong thing and hurt himself, the parent feels the pain even more than the child does. The love that the parent has for the child, and the desire in the parent's heart for the child to succeed and become a wonderful adult, cause the parent to hurt when the child does wrong and fails to live up to their potential.

So it is with God and us. God loves us so much, and created us to do His will - which means, He created us to do cool things that use all of our gifts and make us exceedingly happy. And when we sin, we miss out on the cool things that He wanted for our lives. This hurts Him. So when we confess our sins, even though they might involve other people, God is the one who forgives us. Because He's the one who has the most "vested interest" in our getting back on the right path. No matter how much other people love us and want us to succeed, God wants it exponentially more.

Which means He's rooting for you. He's in your corner, wanting you to make it. He doesn't WANT you to fail, He wants you to succeed. He's more than ready to forgive your sins and get you going on the right path again, the instant we turn from those sins and ask Him to help us on our way.

Thank You, God, for Your forgiveness, without which we would be utterly lost.