Here’s my attempt to resolve, in a poetic parable, that old riddle of predestination versus free will. See what you think. (By the way, alia iacta est is Latin for “the die is cast”.)
Try looking at it this way:
God has enormous hands
in each of which He holds
a zillion dice—tiny cubes
marked with DNA bases.
Over and over He rolls
the bones and each roll
creates a human being.
Why dice? Not for chance
but fairness: these tosses
do not determine out-
comes, only reveal them.
Sometimes God is happy
with the result, sometimes
not. No matter. He goes
on rolling regardless.
What business is it of His
how they all end up?
That’s up to them.
His part, from His Throne
beyond Time, is to create
and sustain—gifting and
lifting each one with
grace, goodness, love
throughout its journey
though not without playing
favorites, naturally, as
each roll shows plainly
where this or that life
is headed, making
His role simply to
cooperate with fate.
Fate? Yes, just one of
His divine brainchilds.
If the dice predict
that a certain person
will turn against Him—
well, then, so be it.
Without hesitation He
creates that one anyway.
What else is there to do?
Alia iacta est.
This is predestination.
And this, perfect freedom.
(Comic used by permission of SufiComics.com)
Next Post: Unknown Martyrs by Paul Hobbs
