Recently, I bought a game for my Palm Tungsten called Village Sim. You start with these six villagers on a desert island. My job is to make sure they have food, shelter and health. I have to train them to achieve these necessary survival skills, otherwise they will die. They have definite lifespans too-the original six are long dead and buried along with their first two children; in order to sustain the village, you must "encourage" them to reproduce.
Sometimes they eagerly take to the tasks I want them to perform such as farming and building, other tasks such as doctoring the sick I have to drag them to do it. Children under 14 and nursing mothers with children under 2 do nothing but play and rest. The elderly (over 60) move very slowly.
Unfortunately, some of the able-bodied villagers are slackers which endangers the welfare of the entire community. Right now, I've grown the population to 44 with eighteen children, two nursing mothers, and 6 elderly folks. this is a great burden on the food production since there is more eating than farming/fishing. It will be okay as soon as some of the children are old enough to work and the mothers are freed up again, yet it is hard to keep the able-bodied adults focused on the tasks at hand.
As "god" of my little island, I find it frustrating that I cannot get my people to lay aside their selfish desires without my continual intervention into the process. Eventhough I can see the perspective of the entire island in the now, I am limited in my knowledge of the dangers and perils which lie ahead.
Compare this to our world and our God, the Creator and Sustainer of all things. He knows not only what is happening now in the big picture with His billions of little people, but also what will happen in the future. No wonder He wants us to trust Him completely and has entered into our world as one of us in the person of Jesus Christ. He is very patient with His villagers, some who are very evil. I don't have to contend with evil and yet I do not have the patience for 44.
He loves and cares for each one; I'm caught up in the raw numbers -units of food, tech points, ages.
Be very glad I am not God and neither is any of us villagers as well.
