Ever since she learned to stand and walk on her own, my daughter has loved the thrill of climbing to the highest spot and jumping into my waiting arms. In her own voice, Michelle and I will hear Edith count, “one…two…three…” as she prepares to make her jump. Just like any child, she completely trusts that her parents will be there to prevent her from falling and getting hurt. Although I do have three other children from my first marriage, it is this child that has taught me the most about the relationship that God desires to have with His children.
During the earthly ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ, he tried to explain to us that God desires that parent-child relationship with those who believe in Jesus. We are told several times and in several different ways that after we have accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as our Saviour we also become a child of God. In one of the instances of Christ’s teachings on the subject, he tells us: Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? (Matthew 6:26). In a world that teaches our children that mankind is just an animal, nothing really special, and that we are the same as other animals, its reassuring to know that in God’s eyes, mankind IS different, unique, and worthy enough to be redeemed! If God provides for the finches, the quail, and cardinals that do not have a soul in need of redemption, how much more does He love us, as Christians, Ye are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of men (I Corinthians 7:23).
Jesus also taught using parental love to demonstrate God’s love for his children. In the gospel of Luke, it is recorded that the Lord Jesus Christ taught using a couple of questions that really demonstrate God’s heartfelt desire: If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? (Luke 11:11). It is a profound thought – I cannot imagine giving my child anything that I knew would cause harm to her. Most parents that love their children cringe with even the slightest thought of anything that has the potential to injure their own child. Jesus adds If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him? (Luke 11:13). We are living in a sinful world; we see the results of a world that is drawn to the desires of the flesh. At the time that Christ was teaching this, the majority of the crowd believed that he was simply a rabbi and not the Redeemer. If they could love and care for their children and provide for the child’s needs, he was asking them to imagine how a holy God would care, provide, and love them if they would yet but ask! The same God that had led their forefathers out of bondage in Egypt, had fed them for forty years with manna, had taken care of their shoes and clothing, and gave them a land of their own was again demonstrating His love for them by sending them a way to be reconciled to Him.
