Why would a triune God create a world? If he were a unipersonal God, you might say, "Well, he created the world so he can have beings who give him worshipful love, and that would give him joy." But the triune God already had that - and he received love within himself in a far purer, more powerful form than we human beings can ever give him. So why would he create us?
There's only one answer. He must have created us not to get joy but to give it.
He must have created us to invite us into the dance, to say: If you glorify me, if you centre your entire life on me, if you find me beautiful for who I am in myself, then you will step into the dance, which is what you are made for.
You are made not just to believe in me or to be spiritual in some general way, not just to pray and get a bit of inspiration when things are tough. You are made to centre everything in your life on me, to think of everything in terms of your relationship to me. To serve me unconditionally. That's where you'll find your joy. That's what the dance is about.
- Timothy Keller, King's Cross
"Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them." - Genesis 1:26-27 (NIV)
Just as God created His children in His image, so we have children (which, ultimately, are His children) in our image. Incidentally, a child usually resembles one or both of his or her parents.
More importantly, if God created to give and not to get, how much more should we enter into relationships (and have children, God willing) out of love and not out of need!
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