Let me peel off some armor and get just a bit vulnerable, being a father is changing me.

As a new dad, I’m getting new eyes. I realize that my old view of God as a Father was beta and bland. What I have always believed to be true is now becoming much more dynamic, encompassing, and real.

This heightened awareness is like the difference between someone claiming to know that water is wet vs. experientially knowing water by jumping into the cold and powerful waters of Lake Michigan. Unlike merely affirming a proposition or two, being immersed in the lake will instantly intrude all of your senses and make you chilled and short of breath…

God is our Father. Not an abusive, impossible to please, poor communicating fool. He is not the folly that we see all too often, He is the best of what it can mean to be dad.

He’s a wise and patient counselor. He’s a powerful and protective leader. He’s righteous and appropriately intimidating. He doesn’t worry about being unpopular – He’s got a spine. He provides and delivers on everything. A consuming fire … basically a cosmic BA, if you will.

And even though He’s the Lion, He’s also the Lamb.

The text says we should call Him “Abba,” which is sort of like affectionately saying “my dear daddy.” A thick Biblical understanding of the term calls to mind the pure and gentle, intimate and relational, fond and tender, familiar and confident, and gracious love between parent and child.

SO, I find myself:

1 – KNOWING that He is love, and that it is real and it is deep.

His love is more real, more deep, and more gracious & good that I first imagined. I know how much I love my daughter, how I would do anything for her and that it is nothing short of pure joy to love and celebrate our relationship … and I’m wicked – how much more loving then, is my perfect and divine Father? He wants to provide, He’s willing to forgive — and not see me as the sum of my mistakes, He teaches & leads, and knows what is best. How does this reality not re-shape everything?

2 – RESPONDING with a heart more like His.

I find myself wanting so many things for my daughter that God wants for His children. I want Violet to be healthy. Smarter than the average bear. Kind and sincere. Pure. Loving the misfits and listening to her ma & I. Secure that her worth doesn’t come from the fickleness of people. I want her to be just and discerning, especially with boys. I want her to put others first and to be a daddy’s girl. I want her to love sunsets and Bruce Springsteen.

But most of all, I want the Gospel for my child. I want her to cross from death to life, I want her sins to be atoned for and for life Himself to enter into her heart and mind. I want the righteousness of Jesus to be coursing through her veins and the truth of His words to be on her lips. I want her to be saved from her sins and saved to His mission (if I can steal someone else’s words).

And what is very weird is that knowing my loving Father and being a father finds me wanting the Gospel more, but not just for my child, but for all of His children.

Can you dig it?