Being a father has taught me quite a bit about God’s relationship with his children. I have begun to understand a little more about how he must love us as our Father. How he can be caring, firm, comforting or disciplinary and still embody love because he shows himself to us different ways at different times for different reasons for our benefit. Well one of those moments of realization came today.
While Jo was at class, I got to watch Ayla. I tried a few things with her: reading books, playing with her stuffed animals, etc, but she became bored with all of them. Then, I thought she might want to walk around. Yes, it began as a ploy to tire her out for her afternoon nap, but after we started walking while holding onto my pinky, she didn’t want to let go. So we made a lap around the living room, then the kitchen, then the hallway a couple times. I think in all, we walked around our apartment 6 or so times. She was loving holding onto a solitary finger as we made lap after lap. I thoroughly enjoyed every second of our time, taking a half-step for every 3 of hers. Walking is a new thing for her. She doesn’t run yet, or at least when she tries, she falls over. Each step is deliberate, uncoordinated and awkward, but she never tired of walking knowing she was holding her daddy’s finger.
Now I could take the analogy of God’s relationship with his children in a couple different directions here, but this is the one that struck me. God is willing to walk with us. And though we are clumsy at times and need to hold his hand, he is patient and willing. He wants to walk with us. In I John 3:1, Christians are called ‘children of God’ and part of being his children is being taught, growing, relying on him, etc. And he has patience far outlasting that of any earthly father.