Pastor John just wrote a poignant article about the sorrow that comes to fathers in the loving of their sons. If you have a moment, read it.
Babies are coming to many of the people we love. We just got back from the hospital after visiting the baby of one of our small group friends. Another Nagel cousin will join us this fall. Our new baby will be here in January. Other friends will have new ones in January, February and March. As we anticipate the joy that these lives will bring, Pastor John's article reminded me also of the possible sorrow that comes from loving with all of our hearts. The pain of rejection is proportional to the love of the rejected. For parents who love with all of their hearts, who long for nothing more than for their children to find joy, and who know that the only true joy is found in enjoying God forever, the rejection of such must be terrible.
I have prayed often that God would gift my children with the faith to believe in Him. These thoughts lead me to pray more, trust more and confess more. I fall short in how I love my kids. Oh that God would spare me from being the reason that they might some day give for their rejection of Him.
God must feel like this though. Isn't this at least one reason why he allows these rejections to happen, so that we might see his pain in our rejection of Him. This rejection of parents is the Gomer to Hosea, the children of Israel to God and me to God every day. As I think about the pain that my children might cause me, might I be more sensitive to the pain that I cause my heavenly father as I turn away from Him. Might I pursue my children with the love and care that God pursues me. Might I always be at the door, knocking, willing to come in. Might I always be the father who sees his son a long way off, runs, embraces and kisses.
2 comments:
I enjoyed John Piper's article. Here are some responses:
We all need to be more careful about what we say to our parents...especially parents that we know, as you said, have loved us with all their hearts.
We all need to be more careful with what we say to others about our parents. I wish I could take back many unkind things I have said.
Parents who have worked hard at loving their kids, even when they weren't very loveable, do risk not having that love returned. It is worth the risk.
Many kids go through a period of time when they reject much of what they were taught at home. Praise God that it often doesn't last! When they reject Jesus that is the worst and most frightening pain of all.
It makes me sad to think of the heartache for Robert Louis Stevenson and his father. The relationship between father and son is one of the most important in this life. Boys, even as adults, never get over the need for their father's approval. Their dads never get over wanting their sons to love and respect them. This is many times never spoken, but I've watched it up close and know it to be true.
Amen Andy - you hit the nail on the head!
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