Background Scripture: Romans 8: 14-17
Meditation Scriptures: Psalm 103: 13-14; John 1: 12-13; Romans 11: 7-28
Okay, I admit it. I'm a "Daddy's Girl." It wouldn't do me any good to deny it because even at 37 years old, it's written all over me. It's not that my Daddy is the only good father in the world. I know he didn't hang the moon and the stars. The sun doesn't rise and set with him. But he's my
Daddy, and although people say I look and act just like my Mama, I know that much of what I am today is because of my Daddy.
As much as I admire and cherish Daddy, though, there is another Whom it would please me even more to be just like. I want truly to be my Heavenly Father's child, and I want people to see this in me without my having to say a word. I'm not nearly good enough or deep enough to put "God's Kid" on a license plate on my car. Besides, I don't want the spotlight on me. I want it on my Father.
What makes a father? Well, any male who procreates is a father. But we all know that's not all it takes to be a father. Genuine love and concern for his children are the hallmarks of fatherhood. A father is there for his children. A child might say that a father "does stuff" for and with his children. A father provides for his children. He consoles, counsels, directs and guides his children. And yes, he disciplines his children. He supports them. He makes sacrifices for them. This is what a father does.
This is what our Heavenly Father does. And how blessed we are to be His children! The Word says that we have been given the spirit of adoption and of sonship. It speaks of Gentiles being the wild olive branch that was "grafted" onto the native olive tree so that it might benefit from the "root and fatness" of that tree. I would imagine that a wild olive branch might be grateful for such transplantation. It has been observed that adopted children are often more appreciative of their parents' love and caring than natural children. If that is true, then, how much more grateful should we be that the Lord and Creator of the Universe has adopted us as His own? How much more, then, should we endeavor to be like Him? They say, "the apple doesn't fall far from the tree." Let us live our lives so that this is true, whether we are a true branch or a graft. Let us live to be like Him.