Grandfatherly Love?

This weekend Abby spent time playing hard with her grandparents. After watching four adults anticipate her every need and bend to her every whim, I started thinking.

So many times I have heard a message or read a passage that involved the concept of God as Father. And every time it has been presented to me, I've struggled to connect with it. I wasn't a daddy's little girl. I didn't have a great dad. There were even a few years when I didn't have a dad at all. But I had an amazing grandfather. And here's the thing: I never, never doubted that he loved me. I never thought I wasn't good enough. Never thought that if I messed up he'd stop loving me. Never questioned why he loved me or how much he loved me. I just knew that he did.

Most people think parents are forced to love you. How many times have we heard or said some variation of, "Of course you think I'm good enough- you're my mom/dad."? But grandparents don't have the same stipulations. They didn't choose to bring you into the world. They aren't physically and emotionally connected with you from day 1. They can come and go as infrequently as they choose. They get to "give you back" to your parents when they're tired. But in my case, my grandparents chose to love me. Not merely tolerate me, but to love me passionately and irrevocably.

Here's the point I'm getting at: it may be nearly impossible for me to imagine God as my Father, but it seems to be pretty easy to imagine Him loving me like my grandfather did. If my grandad, who was human and made plenty of mistakes, loved me in spite of my many faults, then how much more must God love me?

So, maybe the title isn't as important as I've made it out to be. Maybe every time the Bible and pastors and teachers mention God as a Father it's because that is supposed to be a universal example of perfect love. Well, if that's the case, I'm just going to start adding a little "grand" in front of "father". Here's hoping that isn't too blasphemous.