Father

It’s a common word, familiar to all. Whether it be Father, Dad, daddy. Whatever the language – papa, père, padre. I’ve heard it in the same ward at hospital my dad was in as I visited. Used by another person visiting their father. I heard it in the lift of the same hospital with a “brand new” father heading back to the newborn baby, takeout dinner in hand.

Yes it’s a common word but at the same time so personal. My dad is my and my siblings’ dad only. He’s our dad, no one elses. And while I may overhear others utter the same word to someone else, it’s not the same to me, their dad is not mine.

A father and his child, it is such a precious relationship. One, like mine with my day, in its best form filled with love and trust. And it is this relationship that Jesus invites us to with God as He teaches us to pray to “Our Father who is in Heaven“.

“See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.  Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.”  (1 John 3:1-2)