By Bill Gaultiere © 2008
Some years ago I had a delightful experience that I’ll never forget. I was about to drive home from an appointment and I called home first. My youngest daughter, Briana, who was seven years old at the time, answered and I told her that I would be home in 5 minutes and that I had a hug to give her.
When I walked in the door she was waiting for me on the couch and she jumped up and ran toward me, shouting out, “433 seconds! 433 seconds!”
“What do mean?” I asked with bewilderment.
“It took you 433 seconds to get home Daddy!” And she leaped up into my arms…
Just telling this story melts my heart all over again, even four years later… How blessed I am to have a daughter who loves me like that!
Daddy’s Home!
All three of my kids when they were little would do things like that. Now they’re teenagers, but that’s another story! As little children when they heard me open the door they’d yell from our family room in the back of the house, “Daddy’s home!” And then they’d say, “Daddy, wait there at the door.” And then one-by-one they’d sprint the full length of the house and jump into my arms for a hug!
Sometimes this ritual was followed by what we came to call “Rough and Tough,” which was a game of chasing the kids around the house to catch them in order to wrestle, tickle, and throw them onto a couch.
Those are very special memories. Part of what makes them special is that my Dad did the same thing with me. The “Daddy’s home!” moment was often the highlight of my day as a little boy too.
Now I want to ask you a question…
Would you count the seconds before you could jump into the arms of your Heavenly Father? Do you delight in the God that Jesus reveals? As Saint Augustine said so many years ago: “Our hearts our restless until we rest in God.”
We Long for God’s Abba Love!
You and I can find the soul rest we long for in God. We can learn to live in the love of our Heavenly Father, letting him be the source of our well-being and self-esteem. How? How can you experience more of God’s fatherly love? By apprenticing yourself to Jesus.
Jesus shows us that God is our “Abba” (Hebrew for “Papa” or “Daddy”) and his arms are open to us! (Mark 14:36; see also Romans 8:15 and Galatians 4:6). Jesus is the Master and we can be his student – for everything we do in our lives! What incredible things we can learn from Jesus! What a wonderful adventure our lives become when we learn to live from within the reality and resources of his kingdom of the heavens in our midst!
Praying the Scriptures on the Father’s Love
To trust that God is your loving Abba you may need to be healed of father wounds from your childhood. This includes sharing your hurts with a Christ’s Ambassador (2 Corinthians 5:20) and asking for prayer. It may include getting help from a Christian counselor.
It certainly will include renewing your image of God in the Biblical stories, images, and teachings of God’s fatherly love. We need to read, study, memorize, and meditate on the Scriptures that speak of what a loving Father God is!
The Father Loves You! is the repeated message of the Bible. I invite you to delight in the Father who delights in you!
It’s people like you who support the ministry of Soul Shepherding, which includes articles like this. Perhaps you would like to invest in the renewal of pastors, missionaries, leaders, and care-givers? Even small donations given with prayer in Jesus’ name add up to make Soul Shepherding’s ministry possible.Bill Gaultiere, Ph.D. & Kristi Gaultiere, Psy.D. ~ http://www.soulshepherding.org
