One of God's gifts...

by William Brannon
​Being a parent is truly a gift from God, one in which I believe glorifies and parallels how the Lord sees, cares and feels about us.      

I don’t know about you, but I would die so that my children could live. Does this sound familiar?

Ever wonder why we are to look at God as the father? Besides the obvious reason of God being the creator of us all and Jesus being the son, I believe in part, it’s God's example of our relationship with him and the way he loves us displayed in our relationship with our children. 

God watches over our lives, guides us, while at the same time allowing us to make our own choices, our own mistakes; correcting us as we go, out of love, even when it seems to us as punishment.

Ever try telling your child to clean their room? You would think you sent them to go through some great torment, when in reality you are trying to get them to understand that living in filth is no life at all. Our kids look at their room full of trash, laundry, toys, and they don't know how to even start. So we have to explain that you don't just go in and try to clean it all at once, but instead work on one problem at a time. First, start by picking up just the laundry; then, when that's done, you start on all the toys and so on. In the same way, God has us clean up our life, one problem at a time. If you look at your life as a dirty room that needs cleaning, you see how you can easily get overwhelmed and not know where to start in that same way.  
 
It's funny how we, just as our kids, try to pull away from our father as he guides us, saying aloud, “I can do it myself!” Even though there are none who can. We can’t see the bigger picture, the dangers hurdling at us from further down the roads we have stepped into the middle of.

As for the opposite end, when we do take his hand, we are happy to follow without even knowing where we are going. We are at peace without a care in the world, because we know that when we are held in our fathers hand, nothing can remove us from it. We have faith that he can and will guide us everywhere safley.  

I believe we all had a healthy fear/respect for our parents, well I know I did. I believe that's the kind of fear the Bible talks about having of the Lord. Just like we did for our parents, not fear, but reverence, of their love, authority and leadership over our lives.

It’s a comforting thought that has carried me through my walk with the Lord, that the Lord's love is free and never changing, even through the times when I have, in my eyes, failed him. When you look at your children, is there anything that they can really do to fail you? To make you love them any less? Any time I come to him after, in my eyes having failed him, I find God waiting patiently for me with a smile, as he hugs me and tells me it's going to be ok. He asks, “what did we learn? Are we going to do that again? why not?" and follows with, "It's ok, I'm right here and I'm not going anywhere, I love you.”

Our kids count on us for everything. If we didn't provide for them, feed them, nourish them, they wouldn’t survive. In the same manner if God didn't feed us with the living water of the Holy Spirit, as well as feeding us with his word, and forming a new path through faith to life, we would have died the true death. Jesus took on the sins of us all, was crucified, died, and was resurrected; he finished it. The most Holy of santifactions, by defeating death once and for all for those who put their faith in the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the Holy of Holies, the Lamb that was slain, Jesus Christ saved us all.  

I think I speak for all of your children when I say, “Thank you for everything Father, We love you, Amen.”