It is helpful to think of God as male, in the context of him being the Father of us all. I strongly believe we also have a Mother, but she doesn't get any press. God the Father is the one out in public, taking all the heat, in the front lines of managing the universe. God the Mother is occupied nurturing her spirit children, and in other pursuits which probably don't concern us right now.

Creation cannot occur, propagation, without the two forces, yin and yang, opposites, male and female. It only makes sense that if there is a male force, there is a balancing female force.

Perhaps, they are united and there is only one force, but with two aspects. Either way, to our limited human minds, it is easier to think of the God we interact with as being a father figure.

Yes, I think so. That means that God, if we saw him face to face, would look just like us -- "human". Keeping with the theme of God being the Father of us all, don't you look something like your father? Hair and skin color might be slightly different, shape of eyes, height, size of frame might be different, but you still look much like your father (and mother).

Doesn't it just make sense that children look like their parents? Could we not say that our children were created in our image? We didn't have much to do with the process -- it's pretty much automatic after conception. So the idea of us, as God's children, looking like him, or rather him looking like us, is quite reasonable.

It is also reasonable to believe that any other children God has, on other worlds, would look like us, and our father, as well.

We think that because God is all powerful, he can do anything. That is true. An omnipotent being CAN do anything.

The point is, should he do it? Should God immediately intervene?

When bad things happen, we want God to immediately fix it. Make it stop hurting. Make people stop dying. Make us stop suffering. Make it all better.

God could do that, of course. There are two reasons why he doesn't. And why we wouldn't want him to.

1. Our freedom of choice. We are free to act for ourselves, and to choose our own paths. We make our own circumstances, to a large extent. This choice was given to us from the beginning. Adam and Eve were free to choose to stay in the Garden of Eden, or to eat the fruit of the tree and by so doing, be required to leave the Garden.

Without that power to choose, we are no more than slaves. We are at the whim of whatever might happen to us.

We must have choice in order to learn from our wrong choices.

2. We need obstacles so we can grow. If you rescued your children every time they got into a jam, it wouldn't be long before they expected it. They would never learn how to do things for themselves. They would never learn to help themselves or help each other. They would be incompetent children, dependant upon you forever.

As the perfect parent, God wants us to learn, grow, and become mature adults. He wants us to have experiences that educate us and season us. We need to experience life in order to know how to handle it. He wants us to share those experiences with others. He wants us to help each other when bad things happen, because it makes us both stronger.

Just as it is painful for you to watch your child stumble and fall, or make a mistake and suffer the consequences, it is painful for God to watch us struggle with the tragedies, disasters, and hurts that befall us. But he knows it's a necessary part of growing up.

We know that if we do not let our children make their own choices and experience life for themselves, they will never be capable adults.

Doesn't it make sense that God, our Father, only has our best interests at heart as well?