This world can seem so unfair. Like we are made for something that we can never quite attain. Some people spend their lives trying to achieve ‘it’. Others fall into despair and struggle to do anything because they could never gain ‘it’. What is that ‘it’?

I can’t speak for others. But for me, it is without a doubt the Father’s love for me. Nothing in this world has been so transformative. Nothing in this world has been so exhilarating. Nothing in this world has had greater meaning or importance than to know that God is willing to be our Father, and for some crazy reason, that father loves me. The God of all creation is a father who loves me.

Without Him, it always seemed like this world had a fatal flaw. Like there was always something missing. I studied Philosophy in college because I was desperately looking for that thing. I was looking for something that would bring meaning to all the suffering, something that would give meaning to all the pain. So, I read the greatest minds that Western Civilization can offer, and somehow still was left lacking. It all kept drawing me back to that root question of, is there a God? It kept leading me to God, but I wasn’t looking for Him and I was unwilling to find him. My heart was closed, even if my mind was searching.  And so I went away empty.

Which of us isn’t wounded? Which of us doesn’t struggle with that thought that we will never be good enough? Which of us doesn’t struggle with that suspicion that if they truly knew us, we would be left unloved? That there is something about us that is broken, unlovable. Who hasn’t harbored those thoughts? Why? In a world that is secularized, and evolution the only designing influence, why would humanity struggle with that yearning? Why would we yearn for a love in the depths of our being that could never be fulfilled? Why would humanity ever believe in such a thing as love when in our human relationships, we can only find imperfect reflections of it? Why do our hearts seem to yearn for something more?

And if there is a human love that is most absent, isn’t it most often that of a father? It’s a generalization. But isn’t it so often true? If there is someone we are never quite good enough for, if there is someone who we never quite feel loved by, isn’t it so often the father? That father wound. How many girls (or boys?) hop from guy to guy looking for a man who will make them feel valued and loved? How many structures do we build to try to compensate for the absence of a dependable and loving father? Must we redefine humanity itself to try to strike out this image, the source of the wound for so many? Must we surrender to the ever-burdened life, in the wounded absence of that love which our soul cries out for?

And, unlike every earthly experience of fatherhood, this Father has a love that NEVER fails or falters.  He never gives up on you.  He does not define you by your faults and failures.  He consistently sees the good in you.  He can and will forgive anything.  And, if only we are willing to accept His mercy, then he fills in behind it with a joy, peace and love, that are unparalleled in this world.  Because our soul is only truly at rest, when it finds its place in His love.

I know Him. And knowing that father changes everything. You no longer have to prove your greatness. You no longer have to hide your faults. They lose their weight. Because he is a father who leads with mercy. He is a father who gave his only begotten son… for YOU.

Do you know Him? Do you know the Father? Do you have a personal relationship with the Father? The father who loves YOU!