Getting to know the Father

I’ve found myself thinking a great deal in recent days about my 3 kids, now fully grown young adults.   I’ve thought about their growing up years, how their personalities have emerged, how glimpses of who they are today could be seen when they were very young children.  Any description of anyone of us will fall far short of who we actually, who it is we are becoming, who it is God has created us to be, but thumbnail sketches of each would be something like the following.  My oldest daughter, the oldest child of the three, is the tenacious one.  Verbally eloquent, goal oriented, a strong sense of justice…..  I think of the line from the song The Impossible Dream that speaks of being willing to march into Hell for a Heavenly cause……. that’s her.  If you’re going to war based on a righteous cause, she will be right there by your side.  My youngest daughter, the girl twin,……… she is a living example of the compassion of Jesus.  She really does feel your pain.  Very people oriented….. though not lacking in any way with giftings, she’d put them all aside in a second for a friend, or loved one.  If you hurt, she hurts…….. but not with the helplessness that sometimes accompanies feelings, rather with an ability to support………. to share the burden.  My son, the boy twin, is the quiet one of the three.  Reserved, and somewhat of an introvert, he has absolutely no need to have the attention of others…….. but he observes…….. and he considers…….. analyzes, synthesizes, creates.  Until he can see a practical use of something, it is not something with which he wants to waste his time.  Yet there is so much going on at a much deeper level….. just stand back and watch.  It’ll shock you.  It’s amazing…. he’s a living example of “still waters run deep”.

Now, of course, they are all so much more that what is described in these few brief lines, so what is my point?  If someone 30 years from now, someone who had never meet me, their father, were to wonder what their father were like, they could be told, get to know his children.  Each one of them represents a part of who I am…… in a sense “are” a part of who I am.  They are also a part of their mother, of course, and a part that is God given that is uniquely each one of them……. but the principle still holds…. if you want to get to know the depths of someone, get to know their children.  As this is true of earthly parenting, our Heavenly Father would have it be true of our relationship with Him.  If you want to get to know The Father, get to know His kids.