Our Father Who Art in Heaven

[Sung Psalm: 103]

Some people really struggle with calling God, "Father". Maybe your father died – or disappeared – and so you didn't have a father - or worse, maybe your father treated you badly.

Many people have a good reason to be deeply suspicious of "fathers."

But I would suggest that this is why calling out to God as "our Father" is so important. After all, maybe someone has a bad experience with love. Maybe someone did horrible things to you – and called it "love." Does that mean that you get rid of love? Does that mean that you will be never be capable of experiencing love? No! You know what love is – and it makes you angry (rightly angry!) that someone perverted "love" and twisted that word into the service of manipulation and fear.

Even so with "Father". The reason why you are angry at your "biodad" is because you know what "father" means – and that man was not "father". Fathers protect their children. Fathers comfort their children. Fathers are able and ready to help their children!

So if your father was not a father to you, then it's okay to say so! That man may have begotten you – but he was not father.

But God is...