Article August 8, 1994 Issue

God's active parenthood

Tony Lobl

Christians throughout the world pray the one specific prayer that our Lord and Saviour, Christ Jesus, gave us. It starts with the words "our Father" (Matt. 6:9).

Yet even if we sincerely pray the Lord's Prayer, do we always have a very positive sense of God's fatherhood? A father who neglects the responsibility of actively caring and providing for a son or daughter is frowned upon. But isn't this the picture we often hold of God's parenthood? Though we call God our creator, aren't we often accepting Him to be a Maker that has made us and then distanced Himself, leaving the rest up to us?

That isn't the way it is. Jesus' phrase "our Father" is an infinitely deep declaration of an ever-active divine Parent who constantly cares and provides for, and who nurtures, each one of His children every step of the way. His love is uninterrupedly expressed. According to the Bible, each one of us is a permanently precious child of His; and, boundlessly more than the best human parents could do, God maintains an involvement in our lives that is ceaselessly attentive and responsive.

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