Relationship with God

In response to the lead article on Sunday, Sept. 3, 2000, about people's Strange attraction of the supernatural, my comment is that it should neither be strange nor surprising as the reason for our very creation is for a relationship with God. Christians and Muslims both believe that God created Adam and Eve and with God's very breath He gave them life. He created mankind for relationships, for fellowship and to pour out His love.

Man though, over time, has forgotten the reason for his creation. Look at our lives, the things we occupy our ourselves with. How far we have drifted from the reason for our existence. We now scurry about trying to satisfy this great hole in the soul inside us. Some chase wealth, some power, some women, trying to satisfy this emptiness inside, others alternatively try to sedate it with drugs or alcohol. We achieve wealth, position, only to find it only creates hunger for even more. The thirst for a relationship with God though can never be satisfied with anything less than a true relationship with Him.

The attraction of Christianity is the provision of a means of restoration of that relationship, through Jesus Christ. The close relationship with God, that ended with the sin of Adam, is restored by the acceptance of Jesus as the Savior. Once a person admits he has sinned in his life and accepts Jesus' death as atonement for his sins, that relationship, for which we were created is restored.

Mankind has and will continue to try to fill the need for this relationship with God with the things of this world. All religions agree in the belief that one day we will all be judged by the things we have filled our lives with. It is up to each of us, on our own, to find that relationship once again with God. We need to remember that God loves the Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Christians and all others He has created the same; he has no favorites. Once we realize that each of us are creations of the same God, we find we are not so different, only quite the same, all in search of quenching the same thirst for a relationship with Him.

ALEX POLLACK

Jakarta