“Or if he asks for an egg will give him a scorpion?  If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children; how much more will your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?”  Luke 11:11, 12

“The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden and there he put man…..the Lord God made every tree grow that is….good for food.”  Genesis 2:8,9

I want to start out categorically stating that I don’t believe we have the capacity to see Our Heavenly Father as He truly is.  His glory, his very perfect nature is beyond our ability to comprehend.  So this is not about our perception being His reality.  Yet how we see and perhaps how we attempt to see our Heavenly Father, I believe makes the biggest difference in our lives.

Jesus is very clear as He speaks about God and His relationship to Him.  He calls God, His Father.  Jesus also, though, does not stop there.  For in teaching us how to pray, he calls upon us to start out “Our Father”.  In Luke above, Jesus Christ uses the term “your Heavenly Father”.  Jesus could have used the term your Creator or your God, however, seemingly He wanted to communicate a level of relationship.  The relationship of a Father.

On the one hand there is a great blessing involved in Jesus’ words in that He who is the creator of all things; the Alpha and the Omega, desires to have a personally close familial relationship corresponding to the sense of a parent to a child.  On the other hand, we may be tempted to compare that which we can not truly, accurately comprehend; the relationship of Our Heavenly Father to His children, with the earthly relationship most have some familiarity with; our relationship with our earthly fathers.

For a brief moment, let’s take a look at that earthly relationship and let’s say it comes from the standpoint of the most loving, devoted earthly father.  So that earthly father is going to want to provide for his children.  The earthly father is going to want to protect his children.  That earthly father is going to want to see his children grow, physically, mentally and spiritually.  The earthly father is going to want to see his children mature and gain a certain amount of self-sufficiency.  Of course, in this instance the earthly father is going to love his children dearly.  The earthly father knows he will not be on earth forever, so he wants his children to able to live abundantly when he is not there.

So we may have been blessed with a wonderful earthly father or father figure and we might be tempted to look upon, even lovingly, our Heavenly Father based on that earthly example.  To the extent that we do that, is to the extent our vision is skewed and our perception is extremely flawed.

Why?….Well, let’s take a look.  What is crucial to understand is the limitations of one and the complete lack of limitation of the Other.  We must realize that to even attempt a comparison is a very perilous thing to do.  First, earthly fathers have significant limitations at least as it applies to the capabilities of Our Heavenly Father.  While an earthly father may want to protect us; they have little to no power over an earthquake or tornado; earthly father’s can stop a cell from becoming cancerous no matter how much they desire.  Secondly, all earthly fathers have finite resources and power.  Regardless of their wealth and stature, earthly fathers have limited degrees of influence over societal processes like conflict or hatred.  Finally, no earthly father is perfect; his love is going to falter at times.  He will grow weary of doing good for his children or he will expect some return on his investment in his children.

Here’s where our inadequate vision comes into play.  For our Heavenly Father lacks no power to protect us.  All phenomena, all natural processes are under His control.  Second, our Heavenly Father has all resources, all power at His control.  Our Heavenly Father is perfect; His Love is perfect without end.  He will not grow weary or tired, not once of His children.

Finally, there is one huge, overriding difference in the earthly process of being a father and the Heavenly process.  Earthly fathers expect that there will come a time of maturity for their children, where the need of fatherly influence will diminish.  Earthly fathers understand that there will be a time of physical separation at death.

When we look at what Our Heavenly Father intended, it is clear to see that Our Heavenly Father desires that their never be a time that His influence will diminish.  Our Heavenly Father never looks to a time where we do not need Him any longer.  Our Heavenly Father wants nothing to separate us from Him.  At the time prior to the original sin, we were in the garden where, out of love, all was supplied.  Everything was supplied, we were completely safe, the environment was so controlled, so perfect,  that we did not even need clothes.

In a wisdom that I can not comprehend and a plan that I don’t understand, He gave us the ability for self determination.  He gave us the ability to reject Him; and that is exactly what we did.  To our potential eternal doom, we, as earthly children decided to go our own way.  At some point an earthly father would have let us go; would have said goodbye.  Our Heavenly Father instead, gave to us a gift that we could not obtain ourselves.  He gave us salvation, and it cost the life of His Only Begotten Son for us to receive it.

Thus dear sisters and brothers, we should not, we dare not view our Heavenly Father in any aspect of earthly terms.  We must attempt to see Him within the state of Being that He is.  There is only one way that can come about; and oh by the way it doesn’t come from us.  The gift of the Holy Spirit, the gift of the Spirit of God Himself that can dwell within us, is the only way we may gain insight into the true nature of Our Heavenly Father.  With that gift; we can come to the understanding that there is no plan for us to be on our own, there is no desire for separation, that Our Heavenly Father wants to be the all providing, all protecting all loving Father for all time to come.

Our Most Gracious Heavenly Father, we are awestruck that You want to be Our Eternal Father and the lengths You are willing to go to accomplish that.  We thank you for the sacrifice and salvation of Your Son Jesus Christ.  Forgive us Heavenly Father, when we become rebellious children, desiring to reject You for own ways.  Give us the gift of the Holy Spirit who will teach us of Your true nature and guide us back to being Your loving children.  We pray in the Name of Jesus Christ.  Amen