The Perfect Father

[Jesus said] “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” (Matthew 7:7-11 ESV).

 

As I said yesterday, I’ve been a father for nearly forty-six years. I have three sons. Each of them has had bumps and bruises, and even a few cuts and scrapes. Some of them required more than a band-aid. In fact, each of them have had one experience where a trip to the emergency room and stitches were required to repair the damage done in a encounter with something harder than their heads!

 

I remember each of those times well. Our oldest, Kyle, was playing chase in the gym with one of his friends and fell into the wooden bleachers head first. Grabbing him up and whisking him away to the ER, it wasn’t long before he was given several sutures to close the wound properly. His greatest concern was whether his brains were coming out as he saw the doctor wiping some of the excess blood from the wound! Daivd fell while jumping on the bed. That trip required a few sutures as well. And, Aaron passed out during a wedding, falling forward into the stairs of the stage requiring a great number of sutures!

 

In all of those cases I have wished that I could have prevented their pain and injury. I have come to learn that try as we might, we cannot always protect our children. I am not with them all the time. Even when I am present, I might not be fast enough, strong enough, or smart enough to help them. I am not the superhero father I wish I could be.

 

By revealing himself as our Father, God compares himself to something we experience as fallible. Jesus even refers to the flawed goodness of earthly fathers to highlight the perfection of our heavenly Father. As much as we earthly fathers want to provide for and protect our children, our Father God does all the more. And he IS able. As the perfect Father, he is never too slow or caught off guard, never a helpless bystander. He is never too busy. Unlike even the best earthly father, God’s motives are always perfectly good, even when we don’t understand his actions or lack of intervention.

Jesus relied on the Father throughout his ministry. The strength and intimacy of that relationship is offered to all who believe in Jesus. In a world of uncertainty and danger, we need a perfect Father.