Being Dad

Dave asked me te other day, as only Dave does: 'So let me ask ya how has dadhood changed your view of your own relationship with God?'

You know, I hadn't really thought much about it until then, what with David arriving 3 weeks early, and therefore not being totally prepared, which included me doing maternity shopping for Annette - a lot of the ladies were looking strangly at me as I went through the ladies clothes section of Target :)  

Be that as it may...

A number of things have struck me since then.  

Firstly, we get home on Saturday the 19th, walk in the front door, and Annette and I look at each other and down at this little child and back at each other and say, 'What now?'  Then, when we go to bed that evening, we put David in his hammock, and climb into bed, tired and ready to sleep, and once again we look at each other and I say to her, 'You know, between now and tomorrow morning, at one stage or another, both of us will be asleep.  WHO is going to look after David?????'  This was a scary thought for me, and I thought quickly of the passage in Acts where Paul writes: 'In Him we live and move and have our being...'  It's God who sustains each one of us every day, Every Day, EVERY DAY! You think you're going to wake tomorrow?  It's God who determines that!

Secondly, the helplessness of David.  He really looks to Annette and I to feed, clothe and bathe him.  And really, he does not even know who is doing it.  To him, we are providing a service, nothing more... ----    I wonder how similar it is when we first become children of the Lord.  So often we come to Him because we are have needs - hunger for physical or spiritual things, or a realisation of our sin.  And He is the One that feeds us, and cleanses us, and clothes us, and meets our needs.  You know, even us realising our condition is His doing.

And then there is the voice.  I keep on saying: 'David, I am your father!!'  And he keeps on looking at me with this blank expression, 'Huh?' Did someone just say something??    ----     I remember a couple of years ago sitting in a small group, and one guy asked, 'How do you recognise God's voice?' I wonder how much God speaks to us when we first come to Him, and we say 'Huh? - Did someone just say something?'

I'm sure there will be more lessons in the days and weeks to come, but right now, I'm feeling a bit weary, and so might head off to bed.  It's a good thing our Father does not weary as we do ...

That's all for now folks.  

PK signing off