Abba

A lot of different analogies have been used for God’s grace. For example, there are biblical analogies like the just and the unjust judge, even God as a jilted lover who loves anyway. This morning I was thinking of God’s grace, and God being like a parent, in a way.

All the way through our children’s childhood my wife and I had a choice to be present, or not be present to our children. Early on we had this sense that our kids couldn’t get enough of us. They wanted us to be around and present to them as much as possible. Of course, as they grew older their desire to have us around diminished, but even at 19 and 20 they still like to have us around once and while.

As parents we had a choice to be present, loving and caring, or to not be present, loving and caring. This choice was tested continually by the way our kids behaved, the way we reacted to their behavior, and our own life challenges. As we look back now I think a regret we have as parents is that we weren’t more present to our children, especially in terms of being distracted by our own “stuff,” but thankfully, God is not like us.

I know it’s an over - used cliché, but we are all God’s children. He cared enough to live and die for us and now our lives are hidden with God for eternity. God has made peace with humanity. Since the beginning of time God has had only one desire and that is to love. We only need to make peace with God ourselves by believing in him and gradually growing in the knowledge and the awareness of God’s love for us. We may have the sense at times that God has abandoned us, but this is only a sense, not a theological fact. God is always there. If he is absent in any “sense”, it’s only because he wants us discover His presence in new and loving ways, and to discover his love to even greater depths.

We may not know it, but like children, we can’t get enough of God. As we mature in our relationship with God, we learn to relate to God in different ways as our confidence in his loving presence grows. God knows this. He knows how we are made and he loves us enough to speak to us, reach out to us, and be present to us in unique ways according to how he has made us, and our life circumstances.

Prayer teaches us to rest in God’s grace and his eternal embrace. We are his children.