Name: Adele Millwood
Which Service do you attend: Saturdays, 5:00 p.m.
Word: Father
Scripture: John 1:1-3: “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. The Word was with God in the beginning. Everything came into being through the Word, and without the Word nothing came into being.”
“In the beginning,” John wrote, making clear that Christ (the Word) was “in the beginning,” that Christ was God. One of the most radical habits of Jesus Himself was to call God, “Father”. The kind of Father Jesus wanted us to know was one who loves us, protects us, provides for us. An “Abba, Father” or in our terms “Daddy.”
Thinking of God as Father has never been easy for me. Recently, over dinner, Randy and I were reminiscing about Christmas memories. His family had a routine for the start of the Christmas season. They went to church, then to his grandparents’ house for lunch, followed by a trip to the woods to cut down a tree. The next week they decorated it with glass ornaments and icicles. I don’t remember how we got a Christmas tree, or who decorated it. I have a few pictures of me and my brother opening gifts in front of a tree. I just assume my father did the decorating. As an older child, I remember my stepfather taking us to the woods to cut down a tree. The only decorating I remember at his house was throwing icicles everywhere, with some landing on the tree. Other memories are more random. A few are sweet, like the 4-year-old me on a stool, “helping” my father cook dinner. Many are not. There is the haunting memory of a court battle so my father could gain custody of me and my brother. As a single parent who worked full-time, my father relegated our care to babysitters, schoolteachers, and neighbors. Later, an abusive stepmother was given that role. My father was absent from the things children expect and need from their dads.
Thus, my struggle with God as Father. When God is described as a loving, earthly type of Father or Daddy, I just can’t grasp it. I see Him as too busy for me, stressed out, abdicating His role to others, judging me, a strict disciplinarian, … but not usually like Jesus knew Father. During Christmas time, we focus on the nativity. But long before the baby in the manger, there was this God whom Jesus called “Father.” John later quoted Jesus saying, “God so loved the world that He sent His Son,” literally His own DNA. That is fatherly love. As we celebrate the birth of Christ this season, remember Father God’s role and the great gift He gave us.
Prayer: Father God, I have no words to truly express my thanks for Your gift. Help me understand more about Your love and let me show that love to those around me. Amen.
Action: There are many children who need a father’s (or mother’s) love. Be that person in a tangible way for a child in your orbit, this week.
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