Personally this has directly influenced my mental image of
God when I meditate, when I pray, when I study. It’s affected by my
relationship with my own father, perhaps unsurprisingly. I’m lucky in that I
come from a loving and encouraging background, and I love my father more than I’ve
ever been able to adequately express, certainly to his face. But it means that
when I pray, I have an image of an older man, someone looking down on me.
The thing is, I think I may have had things backward.
Disciple Fathers
It’s something we don’t often think about today, but in the
first century, getting married young and having as many children as possible as
quickly as possible was very much the norm. It was so normal that it didn’t
merit comment. In the Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) we hear about Peter’s
mother-in-law, just in passing. We never hear a word about his wife, but we
have to assume that if there was a mother-in-law there was a wife kicking about
there somewhere. Equally, if there was a wife, the chances that there were no
children are extremely remote. We never hear about them, but that’s not
surprising, because they would have been so normal and expected as to be
unworthy of further comment.
So now I think about it, doesn’t it seem that the vast
majority of Jesus’ disciples were probably married? That they were probably
fathers?
So when Jesus tells his followers to call God “Dad”, I
wonder if he isn’t asking them so much to think about their relationships with
their own fathers as their relationships with their children.
Reframing the Concept - Me the Mother
I’ve just had my first child. He’s 5 months old now. Those
of you out there who have no children and no desire to have children, I’m sure
you get bored of hearing this from people who have had children (biologically
or by adoption, I think the emotion is the same), but having a child has
changed my life. It is wonderful. It is one of the most wonderful things that
has ever happened to me. Perhaps the most wonderful. I love my son with a
powerful love that is like nothing I’ve ever felt before. When he looks at me,
when he reaches out for me, when he stops crying because I hold him… It makes
me tear up just thinking about it.
The point is, I know now how it feels to be a parent. And
seeing the parent-child relationship from this angle, it’s a revelation. To
think that the love I feel for my son is the same love God feels for me… Wow is
that ever a revelation.
To those who are caught up in thinking about God as your
father, and who are finding it difficult, perhaps because your relationship with
your own parents isn’t all that great, try reframing that thought from this
angle. Imagine how you might (or do) feel about your own children, and then put
yourself in God’s place.
Now this might be second nature to you. This might be me talking
about something totally blindingly obvious. But honestly, this was a genuine
revelation to me. My prayers are already qualitatively changed. What does your
mental image of God look like? Is the concept of the Father a useful or a
troubling one for you?
