Certain places are stamped in our memories. I visited such a place this past week when we went home for Thanksgiving. A little over two years ago, outside an old barn, I told my dad I had cancer. However long I live, I’ll always remember that time and place. A distant onlooker wouldn’t have noticed anything special about a conversation between father and son, but, in reality, something very deep took place. To an increased degree, I cherish every moment I spend with my dad… and I imagine he cherishes every moment he spends with me.
The prophet, Malachi, predicted the day the hearts of fathers and children would turn to one another: “See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers; or else I will come and strike the land with a curse.” (Malachi 4:5-6) In this intriguing prophecy, God communicates His heart as a Father. When Jesus came to earth, He lived out the relationship God wants to have with all His children.
In our Christian journey, if we fail to see the place of “relationship” in God’s salvation, we miss the Father’s heart. God, who already knows us, wants us to know Him. He desires fellowship. Jesus knew this was why He came to earth. “Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”
Some might suggest such “relationship” talk just leads to laziness. Aren’t we to be about the work of the Kingdom? But what does intimate relationship produce? I don’t think there’s a thing I wouldn’t do for my dad… and he’s already done everything for me. It was “relationship” that allowed the perfect Son to do anything His Father asked. And though God allowed His Son to suffer immensely, Jesus proved we can trust this perfect Father with all our hearts.
May the fathers know the children; may the children know the fathers; and may the sheep know the Good Shepherd.
“I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me – just as the Father knows me and I know the Father – and I lay down my life for the sheep.” John 10:14-15