Your Dad, My Dad

What an outrageously bold imagery this is – God…as Father.

We all have fathers. Dads. We carry their genes, semblance, little idiosyncrasies. In some small or big way, we display to the world what our father is like. Handsome. Ordinary. Hard-working. Smart. Shady. Kind. Bossy.

A complete stranger once told me that they recognized me, because I was a spitting-image of my dad! Even if I wanted to, I couldn't hide that I am my father's child!

This is as personal as it gets.

For better or for worse.

We don’t know what Svetlana’s dad was like.

He could have been a wonderful, caring, present father who made her feel loved and special in a thousand different little ways every day; who made her believe she could do anything she set her mind to… who gave her wings to fly and rubber-sole shoes so she could run a marathon… A father who had no greater badge of honor than being her dad…

Or he could have been a foul-mouthed, verbally and sexually abusive shattered soul who drowned his brokenness and inadequacies in alcohol, drugs, pornography or all of the above.

He could have been strict, rigid and demanding, never-good-enough, impossible-to-please George Banks.

Or a Darth Vader!

He could have been detached or absent. Physically absent. Emotionally absent. Never there when you need him the most.

Or, most likely, some unique, unrepeatable mix, a combination of all those at some time or another.

Somehow, none of these scenerios - confusing or even harmful - seem to deter Jesus from bringing Father – His Father – back into the picture of worship.  Whether you had The Best Dad in the World or the Worst – whatever your filial imprinting is… Jesus in turn says,

Take all that and bring it with you – all of you – the good, the bad, and the ugly and offer it to My Father as you worship Him. Bring your honest, sincere, real you and give it to Him... and He'll transform it... He'll transform YOU... And My Father will become your Father…