God as Father

While I was in Canberra I stayed with a friend who is preparing to give a talk at EQUIP this year on God as Our Father. So, one day while she was out at work I picked up some of the books she was using, one called In My Father’s House by Mary Kassian in particular, and found myself a blubbering mess. An absent father is that great unknown I don’t give a whole lot of thought to, till something pokes me with what I’ve missed. So, I found myself reading and attempting to sort out what it made me think about God (there’s lists in the back of the book on this). Essentially I know my Dad loved me and was a good person (so others tell me) but he is nothing to or for me here and now, or in living memory, and I think there are ways I do subconsciously translate that – I know things about God, but what they mean for me personally is harder. (And the fact that I haven't had a male demonstrate a pro-active, Ephesians 5 style, interest in me doesn’t help me either, as a relational illustration – because I think that’s one danger, that in the absence of a father you can unconsciously look sideways at romantic interactions as representative, and we all know that they’re a very long way from ‘unconditional’. I’ve never known a guy to pursue a girl he didn’t find ‘attractive’, in whatever way – even if that’s ‘godliness’ it’s still a criteria you have to meet, to win initiative and attention and commitment in relationship.) So, that was rather enlightening. I’ve tried to work through this stuff occasionally in the past, as has been evident at times on this here blog, but I perhaps I just need to keep working on reminding myself to believe that God is so far beyond anything in my experience.

Anyway, I’ve ordered that book, because I think I read most of it but in bits and pieces all over the place. So, perhaps I’ll be back on this.