The other day I was teaching my confirmation class and we stumbled across the part in the New Testament where Jesus teaches us to pray from Matthew 6:5-19. Click on the link to get the whole thing but below are the lines in it really spoke to me that day.
...and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you...“This is how you are to pray: Our Father in heaven... If you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you...The word Father really struck me there. What an honor and a privilege it is to call God our Father. I am an earthly father to two boys who call me that because I am biologically their father. They don't have much of a choice, good or bad, I am their father. I also have a daughter who we adopted from China when she was 3 years old. There is no biological connection. She calls me her Father because she is in our home and chooses to call me that. It warms my heart when I walk through the door from work and she is sitting at the table doing some craft and she signs (Faith is deaf) "father" to me and gets all excited that I am home. She will sign "dad home" and "finished work" and if I am really blessed she will throw her arms open and want a kiss and hug!
It helps me see first hand how God must feel when we choose to call Him Father. When we choose to have that relationship that God wants for us with Him. God doesn't force us into it, He cares for us and we need to see that. We need to realize that God is worthy of the title Father.
When I see Faith realizes that I do care for her, for her physical needs like a house, food, clothing as well as her psychological needs such as love and caring and nurturing that she returns that favor by calling me her father it helps me in a very small way see how God must feel when we do the same for him.
I constantly am amazed that God chose us to adopt Faith into our family. That God has blessed us with the ability to call her daughter. The other day the Third Day song Merry Christmas was playing in my car and it made me think of Faith's adoption, her life prior to us and now that she is living with us. That night I made the below video....
God bless!
Kevin,
ReplyDeleteThis is unreal! Thanks for sharing.
I know a few lovely little girls from China who are now American girls. There is such hope for our country from these young ladies. I keep thinking "the stone the builders rejected has become the corner stone," whenever I meet a family with one of these daughters. What a way to get closer to and appreciate Jesus, especially at Christmas. I'm so glad you made room at your "inn" for this treasure from God.
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