Maybe you clicked this article because it confused you, maybe you clicked it because you were wondering why God would hate anyone who collects rocks, maybe you collect rocks and you’re actually scared that God might hate you.

The reason I am writing this is, yes, to answer the question posed in the title, but also to bring attention to the deeper issue it poses.

Let’s start at the beginning: Recently on Reddit in the Christianity section, a teenager posted the following question:

I would like to start collecting rocks like geodes , rose qaurtz, amethyst and other rocks. But I know some religions use them for spells or to practice magic. I don’t want to do that I just want to collect rocks because I think their pretty.

Will the rocks bring bad energy into my house like demons? Will God be angry at me? Is this a form of blasphemy?

My first response was, unfortunately, to laugh at this question. How could anyone possibly wonder if God would hate them for collecting rocks? At face value, it seems a little ridiculous. The problem is, the question was completely genuine.

When asked to clarify where they got the idea that God would hate anyone for collecting rocks, the original poster continued:

Because some religions use these rocks for witchcraft. They use them for live spells or to place a curse on people. I don’t know if the spells they are doing are true like if they really work and I don’t want to risk collecting these rocks and bringing the bad energy into my house.

The pure innocence in this question hit me and caught my attention. Many Christians came to their defense, genuinely helping them by answering their questions and providing insight:

God is an Artist. One thing all artists have in common is that they love it when you appreciate their work.

Rocks is just rocks. If you’re looking for a more serious answer, Paul addressed this with the eating of meat sacrificed to idols. To sum up: it’s just meat, but if someone’s squiggy about it just leave it alone until they’ve matured enough to understand that it’s just meat. We can get into the hard-knock arguments about whether witchcraft and demon summoning is even a thing to worry about, but rocks is just rocks.

However, the more fascinating thing that came out of this discussion is we learned more about the person who originally posted. They shared that they were raised in a more fundamentalist church, being taught that demons and evil gods hide behind every bush and to be constantly on guard for when an attack may happen. Unfortunately, this included pagan gods that don’t exist.

This person was raised in complete and total fear of the world around them, that they lost sight of appreciating God’s beauty, and that God is a God of love and forgiveness.

When the message Jesus wants us to spread is presented in a way of aggression or fear, the message of Jesus gets lost.

Christians should not be scaring people into loving God.

Do I believe people can have a genuine fear of the consequences of sin and want to follow God? Absolutely, but that is something they need to feel in their heart, or have it come from a loving place from those who care about them.

Why would anyone want to follow a God who is just zapping people from up in his cloud for making mistakes by collecting the wrong type of rocks? That’s not the God the Bible describes.

From talking with thousands of people on how they come to know and love God, its because they saw love in the people around them. They saw a forgiving God and wanted to know more. They didn’t have someone slap them upside the head with a Bible and say they’re going to hell if they don’t repent immediately.

People should want to come to know Christ because they want to, not because they have to.

A relationship with God comes from a dream you want to pursue and learn more about, not from a nightmare you want to run away from.

When we misrepresent who God is, we end up with people afraid of collecting rocks, instead of sharing the love of Christ with everyone in their life.