“Children of God”
“See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God.”
(1 John 3:1a)
When is a parent’s work done? Many of us grew up with the saying, “A mother’s job is never done.” Without intending to diminish that reality in any way, I’ve been a parent for nearly 30 years and was the son of at least one parent for 58 years. I would expand the lifelong dimension of parenthood to include mothers and fathers.
Yet our stated goals as parents may include raising independent, fully-functioning children into adulthood. In our home that means that one of our three did not need my help filing taxes this year, and two of our three are now off our cell phone account. Independence is a worthwhile goal in these narrow ways, but what of things that only get experienced as we get older? Some of the hardest things I’ve experienced came after I turned 40, long after I’d begun doing my own taxes and had only paid for my own cell phone plan. I was grateful to have my parents still in my life, even if they hadn’t experienced the same things that were difficult for me. Some days it was enough to know that they were available if needed.
If this is true of our human parents, how much more is it true of God? We remain children of God throughout our lives, up to and through our death. 1 John is written to an adult audience, and the writer celebrates the hearers’ seemingly forever divine childhood. What of the apostle Paul? He writes, “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways.” (1 Corinthians 13:11) At first glance it looks like Paul is describing adulthood in relationship to God. But read on and it’s clear that he does not believe he has seen everything that God has to reveal to him.
I invite all of us to give thanks to God for not leaving us independent. For remaining beside us through the highs and lows, the beauty and the struggles of our lives. And for surrounding us with an extended family, sometimes but not always including the family in which we were raised. May we learn, grow and love together!
Grace and Peace,
Pastor Don Wink