Everlasting Father
We all have many different titles and roles in our lives: spouse, sibling, employee, son/daughter, etc.
Of all my titles, I (Steve) would have to say that my favorite is father. I think it’s my favorite because of what it has taught me about myself and about my God. When I became a father, I felt like I was given a new set of lenses through which I saw so much more clearly my relationship with God and His relationship with me. I better understood unconditional, unearned love and affection, that discipline is love, how completely taken a father is for his children, and so much more.
In Isaiah 9:6, God chooses to describe himself as “Everlasting Father.” Of all the titles used in Isaiah 9:6, this one is the most personal. For better or worse, our relationship with our earthly father (or lack thereof) impacts us in a deep and intimate way.
We come from our earthly father. We bear his image and share his DNA. The more we are with him, the more we pick up his mannerisms, his beliefs, and his personality.
I am very aware that for many, the word “father” is not a positive word. For some of us, this relationship was deeply painful and scarring. Can I assure you that this is not true of our Everlasting Father?
Our Everlasting Father is perfect, flawless – He provides and protects, nurtures and disciplines, instructs and guides, is for us and with us. And, because He is Eternal, His relationship with his children will never end – ever. He will never leave us or forsake us. In heaven, in perfect glory, I don’t imagine us needing a Wonderful Counselor, but we will still have our Everlasting Father. There’s something deeply beautiful about this.
My prayer for you, and for all of us, is that this week you would be able to see more clearly the perfect Everlasting Father that you have. May you be drawn to trust His provision and allow Him to nurture, discipline, guide, and instruct you in the deeply personal ways that only He can.
Let’s take this week to look through this lens with curiosity and wonder.
Everlasting Father, I look forward with hope and expectation to looking at your relationship to me as Everlasting Father and mine to you as your child. Would you open my eyes and surprise me this week by the significance and beauty of this relationship.
Questions for Reflection:
- In what ways does your experience of your earthly father positively affect your view of God?
- In what ways does it affect it negatively?
- In what ways would you like your view of God as your Everlasting Father to change and grow?
- How might your life change if your view of God became more like this new image?
