This month, we honor fathers. I am fortunate. I have a father who loves me and is a living example of how to be a father. I looked up to him as a child, and I look up to him today as an adult. But not everyone can say the same, which can sometimes make this holiday difficult. Jesus looked up to his father. He was always talking about “My Father.” He would watch his father and do what he did. He would listen to his father and say what he said. The whole purpose of his life was to live the way his father wanted. Jesus had a very personal and intimate relationship with him.
Like Jesus, we usually refer to our fathers as “my dad,” especially when we have a good relationship with him and are proud of him. But Jesus did something amazing. When asked by his disciples how they should pray, he didn’t tell them to pray to “my father,” he said “our father.” Wow! Jesus’ desire was to share his relationship with others. He was saying that God was not just his father, but God could be our father also.
With those two words, Jesus invited his disciples into the same personal, intimate relationship he experienced. In those same two words, God invites us to know Him and to be known by Him. We don’t all have fathers that love us or treat us right. But we all can have a heavenly father who will love us and treat us right. If you are one of the lucky ones, take the time to thank your Father in Heaven for your father here on earth. If not, there is a Father in Heaven who longs to help fill that relationship in your life.
One last point: Jesus said God is “our father.” He is not “my father” in a way that excludes others from the same relationship. Anyone willing to share his or her life with Jesus has the right to call him “Daddy.”
Some people seem to imply, by the way they treat others, that they have an exclusive on the “father” relationship. It’s not so. Christianity would be a better representation of God’s love and Jesus’ life if we remembered this.
Happy Father’s Day!
Submitted by a past contributor.
