Rabbi Friedman got a phone call from a distraught father. “Please, Rabbi,” he said “my 12 year old daughter is depressed because she thinks God is angry at her, would you please talk to her?” And he put her on the phone.
When she picked up the phone, Rabbi Friedman asked, “So, God is angry at you?”
“Yes,” she said.
“Wow,” said Rabbi Friedman, “I’m so jealous!”
The girl was confused. “Why would you be jealous of me?”
Rabbi Friedman answered, “At 12 years old you could do something that gets the almighty creator of heaven and earth angry at you! How did you become so important that you can bother God?? How does that make any sense?”
They discussed it further, and the girl’s problem went away.
When we take our own significance for granted, we think of all our troubles and then include God’s feelings about us as a bother and we entirely miss the point.
The fact is, its an amazing thing that God cares about what we do, and it should be celebrated.
Ultimately, God needs us, and otherwise, we don’t matter.
When we stop taking our significance and our very existence for granted, its a whole new world.
