Parental love and the love of God

The analogy of God being a parent to us is repeated throughout scripture and is taught directly by Jesus who, in the Gospels, addresses God as father or Abba (roughly translated as Dad or Daddy). Indeed, the parental analogy is so well-used in Christian circles, it often appears worn-out and clichéd. 

However, I invite you to meditate on this analogy afresh and to plumb its depths for the sake of cultivating and nurturing your relationship with God.

Imagine a devoted, loving parent – who is delighted to see her child; who will spontaneously hold and embrace her child; who always takes pleasure in her child’s achievements and as she helps her along the way; who immediately forgives her child for misdemeanours; who administers punishment to the child with a heavy heart and as a last resort; who is concerned for her child when her child faces difficulties and pressures; who comforts her child when the child is in pain; who laughs, jokes, and plays with her child; who will put her child’s interests above her own; who will always yearn that the child is happy and fulfilled; who is at ease with her child and allows her child to be at ease with her.

In short, imagine a parent who takes great pleasure and joy in loving her child, and delights in the the love of her child in return.

Of course, we know this idealised picture of a parent’s relationship with her child is too rose-coloured, yet we can still imagine what it is like because we can see some of these qualities at least being exercised here on earth. However, the next step, then, is to transfer all the above qualities to God as our parent and expand them in our minds and hearts. So, God sees us and engages with us as the devoted and loving parent, and that the quality of this love is infinitely better than even the idealised picture just described. We must assume and increasingly accept that, who we are in Christ, delights God as our parent.  Like a child, in return, we must run to God and be held by this love and so learn to be at ease in God’s presence, secure in the knowledge that God wants us, as his children, to be joy-filled and peaceful.

As Jesus said in Mathew 19:14: ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these’ (my emphasis). 

For details of my book, Nine Steps to Well-Being: A Spiritual Guide for Disconnected Christians and Other Questioning Journeyers go to my blog’s home page http://disconnectedchristians.blogspot.co.uk/ or to the publishers website ‘Whispering Tree Original Books’ where the first three chapters can be accessed FREE! http://www.whisperingtreeoriginalbooks.com/?page_id=40