It’s Father’s Day in the United States, a day to honor fathers, especially our own fathers. Some of us have many reasons to appreciate our fathers, and I’m grateful to be one of those people. My father loves me and my sister deeply. He has been a great role model in many ways: his relationship with my mother, his love for God, his concern for truth and effective teaching of truth, and his leadership. During my own years as an administrator, he was an invaluable sounding board.

Some have less reason for joy–those whose fathers have been abusive, absent, or simply emotionally detached. There are people who have never really experienced love from their father.

One of the important descriptions of God in the Bible is “Father.” In the Old Testament, he is referred to as the father of Israel. In the New Testament, he is many times called the Father of Jesus Christ and as simply “the Father” in a number of places, as “the Father of glory” (Ephesians 1:17), and as “the Father of lights” (James 1:17 ESV).

When we become believers, the Bible calls us God’s children and him our father:

• But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. (John 1: 12-13 ESV)
• But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. (Galatians 3:25-26 ESV)
• In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 5:16 ESV)

Jesus refers to God as “your Father” repeatedly in the Sermon on the Mount and several times elsewhere. It is clear that God is a father to those who have accepted his son.

What does that mean? 

It means he has authority over us. It means he provides for us. It means he watches over and protects us. Beyond and underlying all of those things, it means he loves us.

God loves me as a father. Given my good experiences with my earthly father, I have some idea of what that means, but my father is not perfect. He has a temper, something I now understand since I also have a temper, but as a child I sometimes found his anger scary. He was also a very young pastor for part of that time, and he was sometimes guilty of believing that a pastor’s children should be perfect. The reality is that even the best of human fathers are still human and necessarily imperfect.

In trying to understand God’s fatherly love, I have to look beyond the example my father sets. Dad’s love provides a glimpse of God’s love, but Jesus makes it clear that God’s version of fatherhood far surpasses any human’s.

So what is God’s love really like? Here are a few thoughts, though by no means a complete list.

• God’s love is based on a complete understanding of who I am. He will never learn something about me that could change how he feels.
  
  O Lord, you have searched me and known me!
  You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
        you discern my thoughts from afar.
  You search out my path and my lying down
         and are acquainted with all my ways.
  Even before a word is on my tongue,
        behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.
                                                Psalm 139:1-4 ESV
  

• God’s love is sacrificial. Jesus died for my benefit. God chose to send the son who is also God in order to enable me to become his child.
  
  In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.  1 John 4:9-10 ESV
  
  
• God’s love is compassionate and giving.
  
  If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!   Matthew 7:11 ESV
  
  
• God’s love is permanent.
  
  For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38-39 ESV
  

As we honor our human fathers on this day set aside for them, let us also honor the heavenly Father who loves us beyond all that we can imagine.

Photo by Juliane Liebermann on Unsplash