Friday 15 August 2014

Background

Today's passage tells us that through the sacrifice made byChrist, humanity's relationship with God has been redeemed. So muchso, that not only can we be considered to be a part of God'shousehold, we have in fact been adopted as God's very own children,true heirs to God's kingdom.

Our son Theo is 15 months old and he's taken his time aboutlearning to talk. He now has a small collection of words, many ofwhich sound the same, including "star" (darr), "duck" (du) and"stairs" (dare). But his first word was "dada" - and my husband Jimnearly passed out with joy. He's taking a bit more time getting to"mama".

I hope that as Theo grows we can help him to learn how to behave- how to live in society, treating himself and others with respectand generosity. In order to do this, we will undoubtedly have a fewrules that we expect him to follow, covering things from what timewe expect him to go to bed to how to behave at the dinnertable.

I'm sure, too, that at times Theo will break these rules andtest our patience to the limit. But our relationship with him isbased entirely on the fact that he can call us 'mama' and 'dada',not on whether or not he is well-behaved. His disobedience mighttest our relationship, but he will always be our son. 

Thanks to Jesus, we are no longer slaves whose relationship withtheir master is governed by rules and requirements. Instead we cancall ourselves children of God, under love and not the law. We cancall God "Abba! Father!" - and nothing we can do will changethat.

To Ponder

• Some people find it difficult or uncomfortable to think of Godas a parent. What is your experience?

• How important do you think 'rules' are when it comes to ourrelationship with God?