~ Finding Father

It seems to me that our spiritual search for a father is mirrored in our natural relating to our progenitors.  I could have said procreators and the comment would have been just as accurate.  Most of us have a loving albeit imperfect father with whom we deal given that imperfection.  Father God is different in only one thing – He isn’t imperfect.

To be fair to biological fathers and mothers they are no different to you and I, and we will be just as imperfect as them if we become parents. 

But God the Father on the other hand has all the best qualities that we experience from our parents and none of those we find difficult in ours.  He loves us with a love that encompasses even our failings.  He even looks for, awaits, our visits and grieves when we are away from Him.  The parable of the selfish sons illustrates this.  It is better known as the prodigal son but somehow it seems more appropriate to make it the selfish sons.

Neither one of the sons were without blemish. The younger son was wilful and only interested in his own pleasure and the older who stayed thought, perhaps rightly that he was entitled to whatever was left upon his father’s death.  When his brother returned he was angry that the father embraced his brother and returned him to full sonship.

Jesus spent a lot of time using the human family model as a means to illustrate the character of Father.  This story focuses on the wilful younger son however the angry response of the older son suggests that he did not do what his brother did, he asked for nothing.  This “slave to duty” attitude of the older son suggests that he did the right things but possibly without joy so he could not be happy when his brother turned up.  Then his father threw a party to celebrate something that he had never done for the older brother, which was just too much for him.

Another time Jesus asked the question.  “Who of you will give your child a stone when they ask for bread or a snake when they ask for fish?”  In my mind these two passages are tied in tandem. 

The son who goes away did so because he asked his father for his share of the inheritance.  The son who stayed had no celebrations because he did not ask the father for one but relied on his father to throw a party for him.  Jesus comment on bread and rock has the notion of a loving parent will give good things for the child of his heart.  Jesus goes on to say.  “How much more will the Father give good things to those who ask Him”.

Sonship is a twofold relationship, in the natural as well as in the spiritual.  We get better than what we expect from Father.  Our dads may fail us in areas of our life but God gives only “good things” to us.  We may not always see things the way that He does but as Paul of Tarsus wrote.  “All things work to the benefit (good) for them  that love God”.  We can ask all things of Father but He delivers those that benefit us and only those that are for our good.

Imagine if we could ask for whatever we like and got it regardless.  The parent who does that spoils the child and creates a monster of an adult who is only interested in pleasing No 1. 

I think I am glad that Father does not deal with us in that way.  It makes us aware of the needs of others.