Father

(Posted by Donna B. Nielsen on her blog "Connections.")

"Throughout the silent years Jesus was learning the meaning of family life. The name for God which came most naturally to the lips of Jesus was Father; and the very use of that word is itself a very beautiful compliment to Joseph. It was said of Martin Luther that he hesitated to pray the Lord’s Prayer and to say “Our Father,” because his own father had been so stern, so unbending, so unsympathetic that the word “father” was not a word which he loved. To Jesus the name “father” was the most natural and the most precious name for God, and it was in the home at Nazareth that he must have learned the meaning of that word."

Reading of Martin Luther's harsh negative experience with the word "Father" made me stop and ponder my own experience with the word. If anyone should have a negative connotation of the word I should. I never knew my "real father" as I always called him in my mind. He left us before I turned two years old. The only thing I ever knew about him was my grandmother's comment when my brother or I did something wrong, "You are just like your dirty rotten, no-good father!" (I don't think she liked him)

Well that made a kid feel good. But, I never actually called anyone father, the word was not in my vocabulary. I called my step-father Jim. And, that word "Jim" makes me flinch like Martin Luther trying to say "Our Father." The word father to me has ALWAYS meant my Father in Heaven. I heard about Him the first time when I was ten years old hiding behind the old wood stove when the missionaries came to teach Jim. I felt the spirit bear witness to me that these kind, gentle, stake missionaries were telling the truth! I received a testimony of the gospel that has never left and which has sustained me all the days of my life since then. (That was nearly fifty years ago!)

Donna's post sent me to Psalms 68:6, but it was verse 5 that caught my attention: "A father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows, is God in his holy habitation." Heavenly Father TRULY always was and is my Father! The name is sacred and precious and fills me with warmth, and love. I have a lifetime of memories of peace and comfort in times of trial, and memories of gratitude and love for more blessings than I can contain! God lives! And, He is truly our Father In Heaven!