“And, ‘I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.’” (2 Corinthians 6:18 NIV)
We have an ongoing joke in our family. When someone says, “I love you” – the other Remember the commercial with an older gentleman and his adult son who appear to be doing woodworking. The son looks over at his father and affectionately says “I love you, Dad” to which the father replies, “What?” This happens a second time. The camera moves to the father who tells his story about how he has pulled away from others due to his hearing problem. But he refuses to spend what he considers to be a ridiculous amount of money for a hearing aid. Then he introduces an alternative at a much lower price. Eventually we see the two of them back in the shop assuming the father has his new hearing device in place. The scene repeats itself with the son saying to his father, “I love you, Dad” to which the father again replies “What?” Then he smiles, looks up at his son and says, “I heard you the first time. I just wanted to hear it again.”
As we celebrate another Father’s Day, we should take that opportunity to tell our earthly fathers that we love them. We can think it, gift it, feel it, demonstrate it and talk our way around it. But, bottom line, we need to say the words out loud. We shouldn’t wait another day, because we don’t know how long he might be around. Many have already lost their fathers, perhaps never knew them, or simply didn’t have a healthy connection with one. However, each of us has the opportunity to grow into a relationship with our Heavenly Father. You were created as an object of God’s love, and even those who turn from Him come to recognize that connection. “Yet you, LORD, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand” (Isaiah 64:8 NIV). That means that you were created for the purpose of having a relationship with Him and, as a result, the most important thing you can recognize in life is the assurance of His steadfast love. It is God’s wish for you to lean into Him just as a child was once were able to lean into a loving father’s arms. And even if you missed out on that, He is the perfect example of what a Father should be. He wants to be one in every aspect of our lives, if we will only let Him. God will never abandon us or leave us as orphans (John 14:18), He will be with us to guide, help, and protect us through whatever life brings our way.
The most loving thing we can do for others is love God more than we love them. For if we love God most, we will love others best. So what does a relationship with Him look like? Well, that is going to be different for each person. Just as our associations with people differ, each of us will have our own unique relationship with God because of our varied personalities. Remember that every relationship is based on trust, and that same principal applies to God (Psalm 84:12). The more you know Him and trust Him, the more intimate your relationship will be. He adores you. It would be a meaningful act of personal worship if you would simply tell Him that you love Him. If you do this, you can almost see His arms outstretched and a voice from heaven with those words of affirmation stating . . . “I just wanted to hear it again.”
REFLECTION: If you tell God that you love Him and desire to keep His commands but fail to spend time with Him, how might you expect Hm to feel? What do you know about God that makes Him the perfect father? How does knowing this affect your choices and your actions? In what ways do you think a daily verbal expression telling God that you love Him might begin to change your day?
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