My wife's dad was out visiting with us for a little more than a week recently, and it was a great joy to have him with us. He graciously helped to paint our nursery and guest rooms, as well as a few other small projects around the house. But more than anything, we simply enjoyed having him out here to spend some time with us.
As the time went by, I began to notice a lot of ways that my wife is like her dad. There were common ways of approaching decisions that they share, little phrases, their particular approaches to how well a project should be done, and a number of other things that I noticed coming out. After witnessing some of these, I started to comment to both of them about how similar they were to each other.
This afternoon, that got me to thinking. We can be so very similar to one or both of the parents that we come from. But, as Christians, we also have been given a new birth, one that took place when we were baptized. At that time, when faith first stirred up to life within us, we were made children of God the Father. Many of us have had the good fortune to be raised in Christian households, and so we've been raised, in some respects, by our Father, through things such as our worship and our learning times.
Just how much has our Father rubbed off on us? After all, we have the greatest "Dad" ever. He's a dad who takes all of our inherited sinfulness and badness, and put it to death in Jesus on the cross. He's a dad who daily washes us and makes us new because of that baptism that we received. He's a dad who is gracious, who is compassionate, who is loving and caring. He's a dad who is just, and who looks for our good, no matter what situation we may find ourselves in.
Our dad has given us a new life in Him, through our connection to Jesus through our baptism. It would then make sense that we, in some form or fashion, would start showing some of those similar characteristics as our Father. Never perfectly, and far too often we will fail to act accordingly. But the absence of these could legitimately raise the question of if we really are related to this Father.
How has the Father rubbed off on you? How do you see the influence and character of your Father in your life?
As the time went by, I began to notice a lot of ways that my wife is like her dad. There were common ways of approaching decisions that they share, little phrases, their particular approaches to how well a project should be done, and a number of other things that I noticed coming out. After witnessing some of these, I started to comment to both of them about how similar they were to each other.
This afternoon, that got me to thinking. We can be so very similar to one or both of the parents that we come from. But, as Christians, we also have been given a new birth, one that took place when we were baptized. At that time, when faith first stirred up to life within us, we were made children of God the Father. Many of us have had the good fortune to be raised in Christian households, and so we've been raised, in some respects, by our Father, through things such as our worship and our learning times.
Just how much has our Father rubbed off on us? After all, we have the greatest "Dad" ever. He's a dad who takes all of our inherited sinfulness and badness, and put it to death in Jesus on the cross. He's a dad who daily washes us and makes us new because of that baptism that we received. He's a dad who is gracious, who is compassionate, who is loving and caring. He's a dad who is just, and who looks for our good, no matter what situation we may find ourselves in.
Our dad has given us a new life in Him, through our connection to Jesus through our baptism. It would then make sense that we, in some form or fashion, would start showing some of those similar characteristics as our Father. Never perfectly, and far too often we will fail to act accordingly. But the absence of these could legitimately raise the question of if we really are related to this Father.
How has the Father rubbed off on you? How do you see the influence and character of your Father in your life?
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