Our Father

 4/26/13                 Ken                       about 60
“God doesn’t have grandchildren” I told an older man named Ken at the park today.  This might not sound right to people accustomed to images of God as the kindly old grandfather type.  I told it to Ken because, spiritually speaking, he had been riding his very religious mother’s coattails all his life until she died over twenty years ago.  Since then, he said he has felt spiritually empty, with no desire to seek after God or attend church. I told him,  “God doesn’t have grandchildren.  Nobody can be in a right relationship with God just because they are born into a religious family or are related to the right people.  Each of us needs our own relationship with God.”  I went on to explain to Ken why we are not right with God because of our sin, but how through faith in Jesus we can be forgiven. We can be born again, adopted into His family.  We can call Him “Father”.  I have been impressed lately with how Jesus was the first teacher in the Bible to really emphasize calling God “Father”.  What a privilege we have!  Ken seemed to understand and agree with everything I was telling him, because I think he may have heard a lot going to church with his mother while growing up.  Let’s just pray that now he takes it seriously!  “…the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.”  (Romans 8:15)