A Father Who Will Not Fail You
I magine right this moment that Jesus walks in the door, comes up to you, looks you squarely in the eye and calls you by one word. What is that word? What is the word that God knows you by, that is the entire sum of God’s knowledge of you and relationship to you. It will define your whole being. Is it a condemnatory word, a judging word, a congratulatory, a word of affection? “To those who prove to be victorious I will give….a white stone – a stone with a new name written om it, know only to the man who recieves it.” (Revelation 2:17) Now imagine that the human person who loves you and knows you better than anyone else in the world does the same thing. This person is known to you by the constancy of his or her relationship to you. Through thick and thin, he or she has stuck by you, though this faithfulness has often been tested. When that person says the word by which he or she knows you, what is it?
I do not think we are truly ourselves or truly whole until we have hear that word from another himan being. For most of us, deaf and full of preconceptions about ourselves, the word must be spoken repeatedly before we finally hear it. It penetrates only when we are absolutely convinced that it is being said by so,eone who knows us throughly…It even makes God happy because another person has heard and accepted the (the love He has for us)…That word is the sweetest sound we will ever hear.
In exchange, God has given us His own Name so that we will know Him also. Jesus has revealed the name of God to be Abba, a daddy whose fatherhood extends to all who believe in His Son.
Our response to Jesus Christ will be total the day we experience how total is his love for us. Instead of our self-conscious efforts to be good, we should allow ourselves the luxury of letting ourselves be loved by God. And much of his love for us will be expressed through the medium of our friends’ love for us. How else could he reveal it in a way that is tangible? “You are my friends if you do what I command… This is my command: Love each other. (John 15:14,17)
