By Steven Norris
When you think about God, what mental images come to mind? An old man in the sky? A cosmic Santa Claus? A bespectacled therapist with a giant couch? A King? A Judge? A husband? A father?
The contemporary spiritual writer, Brennan Manning has written: “It is always true to some extent that we make our images of God. It is even truer that our image of God makes us. Eventually we become like the God we image.”
When his disciples asked him to teach them to pray, Jesus uses this metaphor: “Our Father.” He is using here the Aramaic term, Abba. Technically rendered as “Father,” that translation fails to doesn’tcatch the emotional weight or the depth that this implied. It was a term of intimacy and endearment — more closely akin to “Papa” or “Daddy.” Calling someone Abba suggests immediacy, familiarity,approachability, trust, respect, and love.
Let me suggest five implications of calling God, “Abba,” for the believer’s identity:
It speaks to my relationship to God. Every once in a while, my son would come into my room and say, “Steven, can I ask you something?” I don’t think he was trying to be disrespectful or anything, that’s just what everyone else calls me. Anyone can call me “Steven” as it is my formal name. But my son has access to a name for me that only two people in the world share. When Jesus suggests that we call God “Abba,” he is suggesting that we have a special relationship with God. We are not a strangers, outsiders, or guests in the house of God. We are sons and daughters.
It speaks to my relationship with others. If God is our father, then we have been brought into a family. One writer said about the Lord’s Prayer, “It is not an invitation to a meeting with the CEO, but an invitation to a family reunion.” If God is our father, we are brothers and sisters, adopted into this new family.
It speaks to my shift from slave to heir. In the book of Romans, the Apostle Paul writes, “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’”
It speaks to the intimacy God wants with us. God is not a distant king or an impersonal force that is keeping the earth turning. God is not a cruel dictator, waiting to pounce on us when we do wrong. No, God is a loving father who calls us into his presence and shares with us himself. This father listens, comforts, blesses, disciplines, teaches, provides, and will never leave us or forsake us.
It speaks to our identity as God’s beloved. Too often, we treat God’s love like a meritocracy — like something we have to earn. The truth is that Abba’s pleasure has nothing to do with our performance. In other words, you are loved — and there’s nothing you can do about it.