A comment I made on a fellow LJers open entry.

A livejournal friend of mine, a former Christian herself, posted this open entry for any Christians that wanted to give some insight. For some reason, she still writes for a Christian publication, AS a Christian. I have no idea what that's about, but I liked the questions:

Why are we here? Why are humans in this world? And odds are that when you give an explanation, I need a why behind that as well. The biggest wall I'm hitting is: What do humans do that angels don't?

My Response:

I think the big, unsatisfactory stock answer to all of these questions is that "God works in mysterious ways that we can't understand". Once again, it is not an answer that offers security or knowledge beyond God's awesome omnipotence, but it's the only sure one we got! :)

But, if we're going to probe more deeply and specifically into the relationship between God, angels, and humans--

Angels were created as God's servants in Heaven. They were made as fallible as humans, but unlike humans, they've always been exposed to God's existance and power.

Humans were created as God's stewards of the Earth. For an unknown reason, God favored the humans over the angels--there's a hint in Genesis as to why: we were made in God's image, and because God knows He is good, His imprint in humanity is also good. Nowhere does it say that angels were created in God's image. (And, as they say, some angels, Lucifer in particular, were not content to have lower favor than humans--then decided they were not content to serve at all! And that was where the fallen ones came from--denying obedience to God as well as lifting themselves up as gods equal to the One. Very, very big no-no.)

Humans were once in communion with God just like the angels, but once Sin was commited, they were separated from God's favor and from His constant companionship. Over time, we went from having the choice to obey Him or not to obey Him, to having the choice to believe in Him or not.

@@@

I thought that was pretty good. :)

Happy Palm Sunday--just one week left until the Easter celebration! Yay!

Love you guys--

-A.