When “father” is a complicated word

Calling God “Father” can feel strange for many of us. It might sound like more closeness than we’re ready for. It might bring up our own dads, with whatever warmth or ache or absence comes with them.

Under all of that is a tender question: what kind of father is God?

Trust with God grows the way it does with anyone, by watching how he acts over time. Jesus showed us what God is like through how he lived and the stories he told. One of the clearest is about a father and his two sons.

The younger son asked for his inheritance early, left home and spent all of it. When he finally turned back, rehearsing an apology, his father saw him a long way off and ran to him. A respected man of that time rarely would. He wrapped his son in his arms before the apology was finished. Then he gave him a robe and a ring — the signs that he was still family — and threw a party.

The older son had stayed home and done everything right, and he was angry about the celebration. So the father went out to him too. “You are always with me,” he said, “and everything I have is yours.”*

That’s the Father Jesus came to show us. He moves toward you first. He welcomes you while you’re still working it out, and gives you more than you could imagine.

Whatever kind of father you’ve known, this one wants the chance to show you that he is good all the way through.

The story of the two sons ends without telling us whether the older son goes in. The father is still outside, still inviting him. That invitation is open to you too, whenever you’re ready.

* For more of the story, see Luke 15:11–32.