In our fast-lane world, God—the quintessence of what is truly important—is increasingly obsolete, out of mind, and out of the picture. He just doesn’t fit in. Obsessed with anything but God, our attention has been diverted from the big questions: how we got here, for what purpose, and where we’re going. We’ve traded the issues of God’s existence, sovereignty and purpose over all of life for the perishable.
It’s when we discover that the things we’ve surrounded ourselves with can’t help us when in real trouble, when we’ve run out of our own resources and find ourselves empty-handed, that we find ourselves turning back to our Father and Creator. In these moments, we learn what prior generations have discovered, that to distance ourselves from the Source that put us here leaves us helpless and with a nagging thirst and hunger that can’t be filled on our feeble strength and limited vision. We need our Father in heaven to rescue and restore us.
A Shocking Word
The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” –Romans 8:15
Those of us raised in the Christian faith take for granted the idea that God is “Our Father.” Taught from childhood to pray The Lord’s Prayer, and being accustomed to most Christian prayers beginning with the word “Father,” we are little aware how shocking this word appears to most of the world.
This inner circle Father-language comes from Jesus himself who prayed this way and taught his disciples to do so as well. Jesus even went so far as to address God as Abba, normally the first word from an Aramaic baby’s mouth, meaning something like “dada” or “daddy.” No one in his day had the audacity to think or speak of God in such a manner, and it got everyone’s attention in a hurry.
Jesus introduces a word that our hearts immediately recognize and changes the way we see our heavenly Father—no longer a distant, cold figure, but a compassionate, loving Deity-Daddy! His intention was to emphasize the intimacy of a parent-child relationship, not to give us some incantation or one more prayer-legalism (“If you don’t use the right word, God won’t hear you!” and that sort of thing).
It doesn’t mean literally saying “dada” or “daddy” in a prayer (you can, if you like), but “Father” used in the loving sense of ”Papa.” It’s the intensely personal connection with God that is intended, and that God is at least as near to us as our earthly loving parents. The good news for those who can’t relate to godly, loving parents is that they have God as their Father who will never abandon or leave them. He is the ultimate role model of parent of whom the Psalmist says, “Even if my father and mother abandon me, the Lord will hold me close (Psalm 27:10).
Some belief systems invite us into oneness with (or absorption into) the impersonal deity. Jesus on the other hand invites us not into a oneness, but a “two-ness”—a happy relationship between two real, distinct personalities. For God will always be God, and we humans will always be humans, never God or gods.
It’s Jesus, and only Jesus, who grants us the privilege of viewing and addressing the eternal God not as our pal or buddy, but as our Father. He may be Papa, but not Popsi. He’s still the holy and majestic Creator of all things, not our sidekick. And that was exactly the scandal in a nutshell: Jesus tells his followers (and only his followers) that the God who dwells in unapproachable light, whose majesty and holiness far exceed our imaginations, is the very being who is inviting us into the inner sanctum of his private family room.
As children of God we’re given the family privileges: a wide open door into his private throne room, a personal, one-to-one hearing when we pray, a supreme court when we’re the victims of injustice, access to a loving guide when we’re lost or disoriented, an inside track on wisdom, a 911 emergency connection or hot line when in danger or trouble, a mentor to keep us on course, a loyal friendship when betrayed, and much more. Thank God for the privilege and benefits of being our Father.
