NOTE: In this message, I will use the image of the Father. This is meant to include anyone caring for, loving, and raising a child.

Christmas is a special time for children – of all ages. It is written that we need to be as children to enter the Kingdom of God. I would like to spend some time taking you back there. For some of us, it may be a longer trip than for others.
You are four years old. The big hand is on the six and the little hand is between the 5 and the 6. You are looking out the window. You are waiting. The car comes down the driveway. You hear the car door shut. You hear the key in the door and hear the door opening. Your little legs are ni motion. You zoom down the hall with a cry of “Daddy!”.
Hopefully, the expecting parent has emptied their arms of briefcases, lunchboxes or whatever, so that they can be filled with the bun- dle of excited joy that is you.

Watch the FACE of this child.

Watch the EYES. Notice your self in this child.

Hopefully, you have witnessed or experienced this kind of scene.

This is the scene of a loving father and his child who knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that he is loved unconditionally. This knowledge is not a logically considered conclusion — it is an experientially expressed epiphany. (in several senses of that word.)
The child knows he is loved.
Past transgressions, yesterday’s mistakes. last week’s choices are forgotten as unimportant for they don’t determine the quality or quantity of love available and expressed by the Father.

SHIFT from an unconditionally loving father to a kingly figure, crowned with glory, surrounded by his court.

How might the child behave now? Perhaps, walk restrained forward, bowed head, maybe a smile — but unlikely since that lacks the proper deferential respect. Perhaps pausing at a respectful distance and drop to touch a knee to the floor or even prostrate himself before his Father the King.

This child has “learned” the role of “subject” of the King. This person is a “king” first and his “Father” second. He has learned that he is not “worthy.”. He is not enough.

ONE MORE SHIFT of scenes to the authoritarian, powerful “God-Father.”. This father is very stern — in the sense that his Justice is swift and unrelenting. He carries a no-nonsense attitude and it is widely known that his judgments will ultimately determine your long-term — even eternal future. This is very serious since you could be judged as deserving/earning eternal punishment. To a child, a week is a long time. Even to an adult, eternity seems like an excessive amount of time.

The child approaches this God-Father in fear. This Fear of God-Father is based on the unknown — on uncertainty. What might make him mad? Which situations will be judged harshly when they seemed to be harmless?

The child may tremble in his presence. He may whine, cry, cower. He may try to manipulate, lie, fake-it or do whatever he things is needed to survive.

It becomes very important to “do the right thing”, “say the right words”, “have the necessary experiences” — or he just doesn’t know what might happen.

This child must quickly become “street-wise.”

IMAGINE A COMBINATION of ALL THREE FATHERS.

You’re just not real sure who is showing up when. You liked the Loving Father the most, but who is this person — really? If he can transform into those second two, that love must come with conditional strings attached.

OK. It’s tough being four years old, so let’s switch to who you are right now. You are still a Child of God. You go to the Bible for further help and clarification. You find lots of references to support all three of these Gods.

You find a God who forgives 70 times 7 and one who says, “Yea, though you did works in my name, I know you not…and you’re going to hell.”

You are conditioned and coached to believe that God is someone who “needs” your worship — like an insecure king.

He loves us all unconditionally and issues “loving” warnings that he “might” also condemn us to eternal damnation if we fail to meet certain conditions?

We are supposed to “love our neighbors as ourselves” — and we proceed to do just that. The problem is that we have such a tough time loving our selves — particularly through the worthless eyes of Father the King or the fear-filled eyes of the God-Father.

Where does this leave us? Confused and therefore acting from a place of little conviction or boldness and rarely from a posture of unconditional love or oneness.

When we consider our treatment of our fellow human beings, we are free to love them under the Loving Father. There are no conditions for those “other” people to receive God’s love and there are no conditions for us to receive it either. There is plenty of love to go around for everyone. It’s not a zero-sum game.

We must, however, compete with the “other people” under the Father the King or the God-Father. If we’re basically worthless sinners, then maybe we can be a little “less worthless” than that other person by behaving a certain way. If there are only a limited number “chosen,” we must strive to be one of those few. So, we must “win” out over those others. We are told to do this while we “love our enemies” and help “save” those who would otherwise be doomed. If we did a perfect job of this, there would be no one to condemn or save…? That would be a fine state of affairs.

We are confused about our attitude toward God. We life UP our hands and voices in spontaneous praise and BOW DOWN our heads in respectful prayer.

We “ask” for his presence and attention when we say we believe that he already IS present and hears our very thoughts. We come into his presence as unworthy, awed, fearful, subjects and ask for forgiveness and pardon from “our manifold sins and wickedness.”

The life of the child of the Loving Father is far richer, more complete, more loving than the other two children.

The life of the child of the Father the King is spent trying to measure up, to be filled with the power and glory, to find worth from an external source.

The life of the child of the God-Father is spent dealing with the fear of judgment. How do you give too or love others from that place?

WE MIGHT CONSIDER:

A God who loves us Unconditionally — not with this or that exception.

A God who created us in the Image of God with the incredible potential and value that implies.

A God whose creation is so perfect that the consequences of our ill-advised behavior is built in to the creative and evolutionary process. That means that the “judgment” and consequences are totally our response-ability. They are not dependent on a schizophrenic God who is loving us one minute and banning ur from his presence for eternity in the next minute.

A God who is well aware (omniscient) of his creation. He’s NOT saying, “Un, ohh!” or “Wow, I didn’t foresee that snake/apple situation messing things up.” or “Geez, this ‘free will thing’ go WAY out of hand. I never thought these people would actually ACT on all those impulses, desires and feelings that I made an integral part of being human.” or “A part of my own creation, my opponent, Satan grows stronger each day? Whew, I hope I’m up to winning this battle.”. God continues to say, as he did at the beginning. “It is Good.”

A God who is NOT separate from his creation, Satan, Evil or us.

A God who would much, much rather be the UNAVOIDABLE, instead of the UNATTAINABLE.

A God that understands WHY we do what we do and that we are ultimately “safe” in his creation.

A God who is able to love and forgive WITHOUT a BLOOD sacrifice.

A God who is not in such a hurry to limit the available time that each of us has to “get it right” and then to “wrap it all up” with the final, eternal separating of the wheat and the chaff or sheep and goats.

I BELIEVE THAT GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD THAT HE SENT HIS SON…

To show us God’s inherent loving nature and how we can access that each moment.

To offer a new covenant without “offerings”

To put an end to sacrificial practices aimed toward earning grace and forgiveness from a petulant Kingly God. The acts of this New Covenant perfectly matched his death, resurrection and ascension with the dates of existing festivals with similar symbolism.

In this special time of the Christmas season, it is easier to re-member, to re-present ourselves as “children” of our Loving Father.

Go there is quiet.

You may get a glimpse of your self feeling your unworthiness and your fear of God washed away in loving exuberance.

You may even get a heart-felt look into the eyes of God. You will see that He would much prefer to receive our freely given Love rather than our deferential worship or our uncertain Fear.

If you got this far, you will probably RUN to the Father — bursting through the mental constructions of courtly pomp and circumstance and the fear of judgment — and leap into his arms!

There you can snuggle. Warm and safe and loved for Who You Really Are.

A CHILD OF GOD.