The truth is, for most of my life as a Christian I have cringed at the mention of our loving God being our father. Anytime someone referred to us as His children and He as Dad, a part of me took a step back.
All I had ever known a father to be made me want nothing to do with worshipping the greatest father of all. To me, that position meant abandonment and pain, betrayal in the worst of ways. How was I to bow down before the One who loved me most, and call Him this term that was far from endearing?
There are many things I’ve come to learn in the past couple of years through the blessings of counseling, friends, and relational discipline with God; redefining the meaning of father is one of them. There are ideas and places and people we’ve come to know in this earthly life that can’t compare to the way God defines them for us. He never meant for relationships to mean pain, for home to mean insecurity, or for loved ones to be disloyal. I believe He created all of these things to be so much more… and when any of them fail to be such, He is still there by our side.
In Psalm 27 David writes, “Even if my father and mother abandon me, the Lord will hold me close.”
Amen to the God we serve who continually shows us the true meaning of Father. We are not defined by what this world says or how it acts but by His love, over and over again.
Amen that we are never alone when people fail us, and that God sends people your way in the most clever ways who also share the same pain you do. Thank you for your honesty, open heart, and vulnerability. It was beautiful and so are you.
ReplyDeleteI like to think of my role as a follower of Christ as one is trying to restore everything to it's original condition. Before the fall, in the garden everything was PERFECT and as it should be. When sin entered the world, it became distorted. And all creation longs to be restored. I think as believers, we are called to bring truth to people that don't even know it has been warped, distorted, or even need for restoration. I am excited that God has positioned you to be a person of restoration and truth in the lives of so many that need to hear truth.
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorite psalms.
ReplyDeleteI have been fighting over how to comment on this for a while. The concept of God as our father has always been an interesting one to me. I struggled with it for a while during my parents divorce, but it also set me extremely free. The idea of coming to the time where I needed to become a man without having a father-figure in my life was grieving and stressful - but God has carried me through this.
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