What Do You Call Me?

There's a lot of things people can, and probably do, call me. Some good, and maybe some not so good. They may depend on their relationship with me, their experiences with me, whether they attend the church I pastor or not, whether they know me in person or only online, etc. They may accurately reflect who I am, and they may not. They may be based on truth, or a misperception (my spell checker says that's not a word). But, there are only two people in the world who can call me "Daddy" and those are my two daughters.

Bethany and Abigail and Daddy getting ready to
make a horse feeder. Yes, a horse feeder, but
that's another story . . .

Well, in both Romans and Galatians God tells us that with His Spirit in us as the seal and sign of our adoption as God's children after we have trusted in Jesus for our salvation, we can call the Father, "Abba! Father!"

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!" The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. Romans 8:15-17

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God. Galatians 4:4-7

That, in and of itself, is stunning. That we would go, through God's gift and our faith, from alienated, hostile, pleasure-driven, world-enslaved sinners to sons and daughters of God, fellow heirs with Christ, able to call the Father, "Abba! Father!" But then, to read Jesus' words to the Father in the Garden recorded in Mark 14:36 is almost too much to absorb:

And he said, "Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will."

Only two people in the world can call me, "Daddy"—and yet God has given us the right as His children to address Him with the same words Jesus Himself addresses Him in Jesus' most agonizing, powerful, intimate moment recorded on earth. Wow! Does that blow anyone else away? Thank You, Abba, Father, for having done so completely for me what I could have never done or afforded on my own, for having so completely reconciled and united me unto You that I can share in calling you, "Abba! Father!" Thank You!