Abba

For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba,Father.”(Romans 8:15) 

ABBA "Daddy" or "Father"

          This name of God is a little difficult for me sometimes. I have a good Dad, but we come from very different worlds. It's not just that he lived through the Great Depression and World War II and I didn't. It's not just that he's old and needs me to care for him. It's not just that he's a man and I'm a woman. All those things are true, but there's more. At this point there are things he can't do, and things he won't do, and those things are often things that I can do and even want to do. He's a mechanical person. I'm a words person. Put simply, I felt as if I could share my life with my mother. My life is alien to my father and his is to me.

       So when I think of God as my Father, I suspect I tend to think in terms of "Mr. Fix It" than I do someone with whom I can share my life. And now that I've written those words, I realize how true they are. When I go to my Father, I seem to start out telling Him about all the things that aren't right in my life and all the ways that I've failed. I'm not talking about confessing sins. I'm talking about failure. If I give a wrong answer, God hears about it, sometimes at length.

         All these names for God should challenge us to see Him in a new, deeper way, but I think "Abba" is one of my bigger challenges. I find it difficult (sometimes) to think of "Father" or "Daddy" as being someone who wants to spend time with me. There is a picture in my mind from probably twenty years ago. One of the members of the church I was attending had a couple kids. One day, I watched him interacting with one of his daughters. I don't remember the details, except that I thought, "That's how a father should treat a child." For all I know, my father did the precise same things and I simply don't remember. 
            At the same time, someone whose father was less mechanically inclined might struggle with regard to God's Abba-ness in some other manner. Each father shows only a tiny part of the abba-ness of God, and that imperfectly. This is a prayer I think we all need to pray: Abba, Father, sometimes I don't understand how perfect a Father You are. Open my eyes to You as Abba, and help me to find in You Father that I need now.