Daddy

Jesus did something no one had done before.  No one had dared to do before. He called God his Father.  Actually it was more scandelous than that.  He called God "Daddy."  The original word was Abba.  It's the word small children would use for their fathers.  It's an intimate, personal word.  To call the God of creation "Daddy" must have sounded like blasphemy to the religious of Jesus' day.  It did upset them.

But what does it speak to you?  Here is what Paul wrote, "And because you are sons, God has sen the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" so you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God."

The scandal of the gospel is that the God who made us has adopted us as sons and daughters, children called by his name and a people who call him "Daddy."  He has invited us into an intimacy that few of us dare enjoy.  An intimacy of relationship that is driven by a love few really know. 

Do you know that the God who made you is not mad at you? Do you know that he loves you and wants to be your father?  Do you know that he loves you more than you could ever understand? 

God longs to wrap you in his love, to say to you, "my child."  He has loved you with a love that is bigger than you have ever experienced, more than you will ever understand.  And it's free! 

"For God so loved you that he gave his one and only son that if you would believe in him you will not perish, but will have life forever."