God the Father

The famous Roman leader, Julius Caesar, is quoted as saying, “Experience is the teacher of all things.”

This means that what we experience in our lives shapes us and our thinking. With that in mind, there are many comparisons or descriptions made in the Bible, written to help us understand the character of God, that may be impacted by our human experience. One example of this is the consistent description of God as a Father: our heavenly Father and our Lord Jesus Christ’s Father.

For those of us who have not had positive associations with our human fathers, this might bring to mind the worst parts of our experiences with those flawed men: perhaps you picture God the Father as demanding, cruel, inconsistent, distant, or absent. For those of us who have had the blessing of present, loving fathers, you will perhaps picture a kind, warm, forgiving, caring Father. Experience will shade our understanding of God the Father, regardless of what our human fathers or father-figures are or were like. No human father is perfect because he is human.

However, God tells us throughout His written Word exactly what kind of Father He is–and it is everything a Father should be. The Lord Jesus tells us, “Look at the birds of the air, for their neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? […] For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things [food, drink, clothing]” (Matthew 6:26, 32; NKJV). Jesus tells us that God is a caring Father who provides for His Creation, not a disinterested being.

God is not an absent Father, but cares for us so much and so personally that “the very hairs of your head are numbered” (Luke 12:7; NIV), meaning that God knows every single part of every single one of His children, down to how many hairs grow out of our scalp!

God tells us that He wants us to see Him as a Father who protects and defends, whose children go to Him when they are in trouble and say, “You are my Father, My God, and the rock of my salvation” (Psalm 89:26; NKJV). The writer of one Psalm considered God’s sympathy for the lives of humans, saying, “As a father pities his children, So the LORD pities those who fear Him” (Psalm 103:13; NKJV).

This does not mean that God protects us from consequences or prevents all hardship from our lives; with our free will, we make choices, just like a baby taking her first steps or a teenager staying up too late watching a movie, and God allows us to make those choices. Like any parent, He gives us guidance and commandments to live by for our own good–”For whom the LORD loves He corrects, Just as a father the son in whom he delights” (Proverbs 3:12; NKJV)–and lets us explore our world and sometimes experience difficulties, but He is beside us at every step. 

God loves us like a father. In fact, “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son [Jesus], that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved”  (John 3:16-17; NKJV). God loves us so much that He was willing to give His only Son, the Lord Jesus, so that the children who choose to serve Him can have the chance to live and glorify Him forever.

Whether we have had strong or weak examples of human fathers, God’s example goes beyond. While our experiences do shade our understanding of God as a Father, He gives many examples of what He truly is, beyond our experiences. He invites us to get to know Him as our Father–and what a beautiful thing, that the Creator of the universe sees us as His children and cares to know us at all!

We can each have an individual relationship with our Father in Heaven, and like all relationships, it requires time and effort, but it is well worth the time it takes to grow a relationship to see the love and care of the perfect Father.