Why “Father” God?
Keith Hernandez is one of baseball’s top players. He is a lifetime .300 hitter who has won numerous Golden Glove awards for excellence in fielding. He’s won a batting championship for having the highest average, the Most Valuable Player award in his league, and even the World Series.
Yet with all his accomplishments, he has missed out on something crucially important to him – his father’s acceptance and recognition that what he has accomplished is valuable.
Listen to what he had to say in a very candid interview about his relationship with his father: One day Keith asked his father, “Dad, I have a lifetime .300 batting average. What more do you want?” His father replied, “But someday you’re going to look back and say, ‘I could have done more.’”
When you hear God referred to as “Father”, what adjectives come to mind? For many, the list may look something like this:
- Demanding
- Unreliable
- Strict
- Emotionally distant
- Uncaring
Of course, not everyone had bad experiences with their father. But those who do often transfer those negative mental pictures to God. Really though, isn’t this looking at things entirely backwards?
Say for example your father’s job caused him to spend a lot of time traveling and you rarely saw him when you were growing up. This might cause you to associate the word “distant” with the word “father”; you wouldn’t expect him to be there for you. It might be natural, when God is referred to as “Father”, to think of God as also being “distant” and like the person who wasn’t there for you when you needed him.
But that seems backwards, since God is the standard of what a father is. God is the like the mold, the definition of “father”. Our own fathers (as wonderful or as miserable as they may be) are like the clay made from the mold, which imperfectly represent the original. Our own fathers cannot tell us much about our Father in Heaven, any more than imperfect copies of a great work of art can tell us much about the greatness of the original masterpiece.
This “Father in Heaven”, who you might have never cared to hear from before, has something to say to you today. Here’s a “Father’s Letter” to you, artfully comprised from various verses in the Bible:
- You may not know me, but I know everything about you. Psalm 139:1
- I know when you sit down and when you rise up. Psalm 139:2
- I am familiar with all your ways. Psalm 139:3
- Even the very hairs on your head are numbered. Matthew 10:29-31
- For you were made in my image. Genesis 1:27
- In me you live and move and have your being. Acts 17:28
- For you are my offspring. Acts 17:28
- I knew you even before you were conceived. Jeremiah 1:4-5
- I chose you when I planned creation. Ephesians 1:11-12
- You were not a mistake, for all your days are written in my book. Psalm 139:15-16
- I determined the exact time of your birth and where you would live. Acts 17:26
- You are fearfully and wonderfully made. Psalm 139:14
- I knit you together in your mother’s womb. Psalm 139:13
- And brought you forth on the day you were born. Psalm 71:6
- I have been misrepresented by those who don’t know me. John 8:41-44
- I am not distant and angry, but am the complete expression of love. 1 John 4:16
- And it is my desire to lavish my love on you. 1 John 3:1
- Simply because you are my child and I am your Father. 1 John 3:1
- I offer you more than your earthly father ever could. Matthew 7:11
- For I am the perfect father. Matthew 5:48
- Every good gift that you receive comes from my hand. James 1:17
- For I am your provider and I meet all your needs. Matthew 6:31-33
- My plan for your future has always been filled with hope. Jeremiah 29:11
- Because I love you with an everlasting love. Jeremiah 31:3
- My thoughts toward you are countless as the sand on the seashore. Psalms 139:17-18
- And I rejoice over you with singing. Zephaniah 3:17
- I will never stop doing good to you. Jeremiah 32:40
- For you are my treasured possession. Exodus 19:5
- I desire to establish you with all my heart and all my soul. Jeremiah 32:41
- And I want to show you great and marvelous things. Jeremiah 33:3
- If you seek me with all your heart, you will find me. Deuteronomy 4:29
- Delight in me and I will give you the desires of your heart. Psalm 37:4
- For it is I who gave you those desires. Philippians 2:13
- I am able to do more for you than you could possibly imagine. Ephesians 3:20
- For I am your greatest encourager. 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17
- I am also the Father who comforts you in all your troubles. 2 Corinthians 1:3-4
- When you are brokenhearted, I am close to you. Psalm 34:18
- As a shepherd carries a lamb, I have carried you close to my heart. Isaiah 40:11
- One day I will wipe away every tear from your eyes. Revelation 21:3-4
- And I’ll take away all the pain you have suffered on this earth. Revelation 21:3-4
- I am your Father, and I love you even as I love my son, Jesus. John 17:23
- For in Jesus, my love for you is revealed. John 17:26
- He is the exact representation of my being. Hebrews 1:3
- He came to demonstrate that I am for you, not against you. Romans 8:31
- And to tell you that I am not counting your sins. 2 Corinthians 5:18-19
- Jesus died so that you and I could be reconciled. 2 Corinthians 5:18-19
- His death was the ultimate expression of my love for you. 1 John 4:10
- I gave up everything I loved that I might gain your love. Romans 8:31-32
- If you receive the gift of my son Jesus, you receive me. 1 John 2:23
- And nothing will ever separate you from my love again. Romans 8:38-39
- Come home and I’ll throw the biggest party heaven has ever seen. Luke 15:7
- I have always been Father, and will always be Father. Ephesians 3:14-15
- My question is: Will you be my child? John 1:12-13
- I am waiting for you. Luke 15:11-32
Your earthly father may have been wonderful, terrible, somewhere in between, or absent entirely. Regardless, he is not the measure of God. God is the measure of men and women. And God is ready to welcome you back to Him (or to know Him for the first time) with open arms, if you are willing to give your life to him, repent of your wrongdoings apart from Him, and put your trust in Him from now on.
God offers you a life with purpose through Jesus Christ, his Son, whom he gave up on the cross to die for our sins. This sin separates us from our heavenly Father, but Jesus, being at once fully God and fully human (Immanuel; “God with us”) gave His life in your place, taking the punishment we all deserve and offering you eternal life. He longs to have a relationship with you and give you the life you’ve longed for – life lived to its fullest, life everlasting.
You can receive Christ right now by faith through prayer. Praying is simply talking to God. God knows your heart and is not so concerned with your words as He is with the attitude of your heart.
Here’s a suggested prayer:
Lord Jesus, I want to know you personally. Thank you for dying on the cross for my sins. I open the door of my life to you and ask you to come in as my Savior and Lord. Take control of my life. Teach me to strive to learn more about You and become more and more like you. Thank you for forgiving my sins and giving me eternal life. Make me the kind of person you want me to be.
Does this prayer express the desire of your heart? You can pray it right now, and Jesus Christ will come into your life, just as He promised.
Is this the life for you?
If you invited Christ into your life, thank God often that He is in your life, that He will never leave you and that you have eternal life. As you learn more about your relationship with God, and how much He loves you, you’ll experience life to the fullest.
Thanks for a great article ! The Father’s Letter was so encouraging especially for people like myself who don’t always have the best memories of their fathers.
Thank you for the wisdom and knowledge that was expressed in these word. So many judge their past on their with Christ today. Thank for the understand that our Heaven Father love us so much.