Gods Empathetic Heart for Humanity

God, our great Creator, had perfection in mind when He spoke the world and the human heart into being. This is illustrated at the inception point of the biblical narrative. Adam and Eve were set in a perfect garden where, as Genesis 3:8 tells us, God could be heard walking in the cool of the day.

Can you imagine the sound of God walking — His footsteps and the palpable nearness of His manifest presence against the backdrop of the wonder of the world He made? In the garden, God Himself was the greatest, capital “R” Reality of all present realities. Face to face friendship with Him was ever present wholeness. Adam and Eve were immersed in a constant flow of His goodness. This level of exquisite beauty, sacred holiness and relational proximity seems incomprehensible. But these unimaginable gifts are exactly what Adam and Eve lost when they fell, left the garden, and entered a Post-Eden world. Humanity, in exile, has attempted to create its own versions of Eden ever since.

But have you ever stopped to consider the depth of God’s grief in the wake of these events? If love requires consent, Adam and Eve failed to give God full consent to love them in keeping with His divine plan for intimacy with His children. And yet, our relational God, became improvisational sovereign when His original design for humanity was interrupted by man’s free will. God Himself, would stoop down low to reveal His empathetic love amid the homesickness of the human heart through the good gift of Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us.

Dr. Curt Thompson’s definition of empathy seems like an appropriate reflection as we consider God’s improvisational sovereignty in the wake of man’s fallen, free will:

“Moreover, empathy moves us beyond compassion to kindness and human flourishing, in this sense, it is not just something that is intended to reduce pain, but also to increase hope, energizing us toward justice: we move to change our behavior on behalf of the plight of others who cannot change things themselves.”

When God split the darkness of this homesick world with the light of Jesus He moved “on behalf of the plight of others who” could not “change things themselves.” This is what love does and this is what the life and reality of Jesus fully embodies.

Today, I’d like to share three reminders illustrating God’s empathetic heart for humanity through the sacrificial gift of Jesus, His only Son.

1. The arrival of Jesus into the story of humanity is the grand crescendo of scripture and God’s love and compassion “intended to reduce pain, but also to increase hope” embodied in human form. Jesus, the fulfillment of the law and the prophets is the greatest display of God’s faithfulness to an unfaithful people.

2. Jesus was fully God and fully man — a critical component for true empathy. Jesus “healed the sick. He also cried. He walked on water. He also knew rejection. He laughed and He was disappointed. He felt hunger and the joy of satiation. He had friends and no place to lay His head. Why does this matter? This matters because it has relational implications. Emmanuel, God with us was not a concept. He was a person who lived into all of the complexity of the human experience with the power of God’s divinity flowing through His veins. But the nuances of His own humanity never diminished the fullness of His deity. His journey in our home sick world simply sealed his power with the authority of compassionate love.” (Befriending God, Copyright © 2025)

3. The death and resurrection of Jesus is the irrevocable answer to the question of God’s unwavering commitment to human flourishing and the supernatural provision that makes Jesus’ statement in John 16:33 the Reality of all realities: “I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

In a Post-Eden world, Jesus is the provisional doorway to return to the compassionate heart of the Father. And surely He is with us always, even “to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20)  

Tanya Godsey 
Freedom Movement’s Spiritual Director