Abba! (Calling God "Father")

O peoples, bless our God,

let the voice of his praise resound,

of the God who gave life to our souls

and kept our feet from stumbling (Ps. 66:8).

 

Whether speaking to God in prayer or speaking of Him to His listeners, Jesus called God "Father" (Abba in Aramaic).  A priest once told of waiting in an airport in Jerusalem when he suddenly heard a 5-year-old little boy cry out in a panic:  Abba!  Abba!   The little boy had temporarily lost sight of his father and was terrified among all the strangers.  His cry pierced the hearts of all who heard him and brought the father instantly to his side. 

 

When we call God "Father," we call to the One Who has given life to our souls.  The title has nothing to do with gender, but with His role, His relationship to us.  As Paul says, "We see in part and we know in part..."   We can speak only from what we know and understand, and we understand that to be "father" means to pour out the seed of life into a waiting womb, where it is nurtured and grown. 

 

The Father of heaven and earth is the Source of our life.  Everything we are and have comes from Him and returns to Him.  And the action is continuous, ongoing forever.  Even now, He is pouring forth life, received by the world; even now, He is generating us in His Image and bringing us to a new birth.  Once we move into that ongoing relationship with Him, and acknowledge Him as the Source of all we are, once we can, like Jesus, cry out "Abba, Father," we are His children -- children born not of human will, but of His Spirit, and like Him. 

 

To be created in the image of God is to be male- and- female in relationship to one another, and to be capable of bringing forth new life, as he does.  In Himself, God is both male-female, in that He pours forth His own life and nurtures it into existence.  Biblically, God is both Father -- the Source -- and Mother--the receiver and nurturer of life until it blossoms forth.  That is why the doctrine of the Trinity is so important.  If God is not both Father and Mother, then to be created in His image leaves out one half of humanity. 

 

Everything in the physical world speaks to us of the world of the spirit, if we can only look deeply enough to see it.  Jesus, in human flesh, called God "Father" in acknowledgment of the fact that He was created in the flesh and received His whole being from Another.  He was like us in all things except sin.  Only He, among all born of women, could receive fully the life of the Father and live it.  That is what we were destined to do from the beginning, but we could not do it.  So now, Jesus does the same thing in us if we permit Him to do so.  In us, spiritually, He dwells, receiving all Life from the Father of heaven and earth.  In us, God the Father and God the Son live their eternal, flowing, generating - and- receiving - and giving - back - life - in - relationship - to - one - another. 

 

Life is movement; it is not static, but flowing.  To look up and say, "Abba! Father!" is only to acknowledge Him as our Source, to receive all that He has to give us, from His loving hands-- our daily bread-- and then to return all that we have back into His hands in an eternal giving and receiving.