THIS FATHER’S DAY, REFLECT ON THE FATHERHOOD OF GOD by Jonathan Landry Cruse for Core Christianity
“Say ‘Dada,’ baby! Say ‘Dada’!” So my toddler instructed our nine-month-old at the breakfast table this morning. He has been helping us coach our little girl in her first word, which, interestingly, was the exact same as his first word. My wife has been a great sport about it. And I recognize it’s not so much that I’m anybody’s favorite parent as it is that the D sound is a lot easier to spit out than the M sound. Even so, it shouldn’t surprise us that so often a child’s first word will be “mommy” or “daddy” (or in our case “dada”). Their first articulation is that of their first conceptualization: parental presence.
In a similar way, the very first thing—the most fundamental thing—that we must acknowledge about God is that he is the Father. When you take into account the biblical data, this is the main idea that Scripture sets forth about how we should understand God. The concept is introduced in Genesis, and it’s the grand theme that carries along the entire scriptural story until it reaches its close in Revelation. The Fatherhood of God informs how we understand this world, where we came from, and why we’re here. The great moral attributes of love, mercy, compassion, wrath, and justice are all in some way means by which we experience God as Father.
Most profoundly, the message of the gospel is summed up by Jesus like this: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him” (John 14:6–7). Salvation is about coming to God, not primarily as Creator, or Sustainer, or Judge, but as Father. The Christian is one who sees that God is no longer Father merely in a propositional sense, but he is Father in the most personal sense imaginable. He is my Father. And we come to know him in that soul-saving way through faith in Jesus Christ.
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It struck me that this scene at the breakfast table was a powerful picture of what it means to know God. There wasn’t anything particularly beautiful about it if you had been there. She had Cheerios stuck to her face, and I’m pretty sure her brother was more demanding than encouraging (“Hey, baby! Say ‘Dada’ already, won’t you!”). But it showed me that there really is nothing more important than one child of God willing another person to articulate with them that most profound and foundational statement: “Our Father, who art in heaven…” Consider this my meager attempt to do just that:
