In His Word, God represents Himself as many things -- Protector, Potter, Jehovah, Provider, Healer and many others. But over and over again in scripture, God presents Himself as the Father.
Romans 8:15 takes it up a notch when it says, "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." To call our Lord Abba Father brings it at a personal level because Abba is an intimate term of endearment, almost like calling someone "Daddy" or "Papa."
God presents Himself as the loving Father who radically fulfills His vow of love by sending His one true Son -- Jesus Christ -- to be the ransom for our very souls. Jesus is the ultimate expression and representation of love. He is the definition of love.
Nowadays, parenting has changed in many ways. Discipline methods, feeding patterns and learning strategies may vary across a wide spectrum, but one thing remains -- the constant need to express our love as parents to our children.
The ultimate need that children have that only parents can provide is fatherly and motherly love. Sure, children will need to be provided for, educated and even disciplined, but all of these come only as an expression of our love for our children.
But let's be completely frank here: As imperfect and sinful parents (yes, even if you're a mature Christian), there will always be lapses in our ability to communicate the pure and perfect love that our children need. We cannot meet those needs on our own because of our fallen nature. As a result, we have these love-deprived and love-hungry children that long for that perfect love.
That perfect love our children can only draw from Jesus, which is why as parents, our goal is to represent and reflect Christ in such a way that our children will always have open access to Christ. Sure, we cannot force children to memorize scriptures, go to church or make Christian friends, and even if we did, we'd be missing the point.
To point children to Christ means to keep the gateway open to allow them to see a clear path, not to a doctrine, not to a religion, but to a Person. Jesus said in Matthew 19:14, "Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven."
As parents, our primary role goes beyond just providing rules, advice, money or basic needs. Yes, those are important, but not as important as pointing our children to Christ and the perfect love that comes only from Him and Him alone.
