I and the Father are one. (John 10:30)

In a human family, the father is traditionally recognized as leader of the pack. He is physically the largest, and he frequently has the meanest temper. In my own family of ten, dad was alpha. As with many families of my generation, this alpha often went MIA. He worked a lot. And come the weekend he liked to golf. But no, it never dawned on me to fall upon my knees and cry, “father, oh father, why have you forsaken me?!” I was too busy playing. I had a lot of fun as a kid.

I thank and praise you, O God of my fathers: You have given me wisdom and power. (Daniel 2:23)

Dad was a great provider and he laid down the law. Mom also worked, part-time as a teacher. At home, she was the boo-boo kisser and traffic cop, blowing her whistle and waving her hands while we trouble-makers collided around her. Dad, however, was Bernardin-town’s sheriff. When he made an appearance on Main Street, you knew there was the chance he would stand before you, hands on his hips, eyes squinting, ready to pull off his belt like a gun from a holster.

Is this the way you repay the LORD, O foolish and unwise people? Is he not your Father, your Creator, who made you and formed you? (Deuteronomy 32:6)

There may have been times that I wished I had a different father. Maybe a cross between Mr. Rogers, the Candyman, and Joe Namath. But most of the time I happily settled for what I had.

The men of Judah were victorious because they relied on the LORD, the God of their fathers. (2 Chronicles 13:18)

I wonder whether all people, on some level, or at some time, suspect they were adopted — that their father is not their true father; that he’s merely the earthly stand-in who gets things done. Maybe all people have the potential to crave being reunited with an unseen great being who gave them life and continues to have some special, invisible relationship with them.

Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels? (Matthew 26:53)

Rejecting the relatively disappointingly real and embracing a perfectly imaginary ideal: this tendency makes us human. It motivates us to improve our world. Where that isn’t possible or isn’t enough, it seems that some people erect an altar in their consciousness on which to settle their unfulfilled desires.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father. (Philemon 1:3)

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Tags | christianity, Religion