FATHERS

For this week's message, I am looking at the story of Jesus' extra days at the temple in Jerusalem at age 12.

I am focused on the explanation He gives his earthly parents when they return to Jerusalem in a panic. Mary scolds Him a bit - in true motherly fashion - "Why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you." 

Jesus picks up on the word "father" and uses it to reference Someone quite different from Joseph: "Didn't you know I had to be in my Father's house?"

Interestingly, this is the first recorded instance of Jesus calling God His "Father" and the last mention of His human father, Joseph. 

Since last summer, on a daily basis, I have been intentionally following Jesus' lead in addressing God as He taught us: "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name." 

I stop and linger over that word, Father. I suppose most of us could spend a lifetime meditating on God's fatherly love for us and never exhaust all that He intends for us to understand.

But in reading the story of Jesus at the temple, I am struck that I have only ever seen one side of "Father": God's warmth toward us ...

But it also expresses our obligation to Him as His sons and daughters. 

Because in the end, a father is someone who loves me and asks me to do things.

As a son, I love my father and I do the things he asks me to do.

When I pray to "my Father in heaven", it should call to mind not only His love for me but also my obligation to do what He asks of me.