Names of God: Abba Father
My best friend in college was named Jon Annett. He was tall, good-looking, wealthy, humorous, and confident. Okay, some people said he was cocky. But we had a lot of fun together. He helped me lead a small youth group in the tiny town of Summerland, playing the guitar and teaching occasionally. I remember with clarity the first time I met his family. They invited me to join them for a dinner out, which was a rare and welcome commodity for a penny-pinching college student. He had a cute younger sister, and his mother dressed and carried herself with elegance. But it was clearly his father that had the deepest impact on me.
After sharing just a half hour with the man, I knew that I was in the presence of a great person. He encouraged me to order whatever I wanted on the menu, and then he peppered me with questions about my background, my areas of study and my interests. His questions weren’t the cold probe of a professional, but the sincere interest of a new friend. There was a warmth in his listening. He had good humor, and told engaging stories.
Here was a man that led the conversation with commitment and skill, which struck me as a plain contrast to the tables that I had grown up with. I only found out later that he was the CEO of a large Minnesota business. When I found out, it made perfect sense to me that I had been in the presence of a man that had a thorough education and expertise in leadership and communication at the highest levels of our nation.
Afterward, I reflected on the dinner. Certainly, you can’t know someone deeply after one meal, but Jon’s dad had a personality that imprinted upon you in a short time. I had grown up with a good dad. Jon had grown up with a great one.
Fatherhood is complicated. The idea includes protection, provision, leadership, discipline and love. And while the ideal of fatherhood is high, the reality is broken, at least in part, and sometimes in whole. No one grows up with a perfect father. Even someone with a great father like Jon could tell you times when his dad was too harsh, or gone too much of the time. And some people have horrific stories of abuse, abandonment, or neglect. This makes it increasingly difficult to accurately project the ideal of fatherhood onto our relationship with God.
But the idea of God as Father comes from the bible, and particularly, it comes from the words and life of Jesus. God as Father occasionally appears in the Old Testament. One of the few references is in Isaiah 63:16, which says, “You, Lord, are our Father, our Redeemer from of old is your name.” But it was
Jesus that emphasized this theme. Regularly, when he was talking about, or praying to, God, he would use the title “Father.” This wasn’t the normal Jewish way of referring to God. But for Jesus, it came from a young age. Even when he was 12 years old in the temple, he said, “Why were you searching for me? Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” (Luke 2:49). When Jesus used the name “Father,” for
God, it was a rich, multifaceted, expression. It included the idea that God was his leader, that directed his life. God was available to communicate with him, and encouragement him, like his earthly father. God was the one that would provide his “daily bread.” God was in a covenant commitment with him, just a father that is committed to his children.
The specific word Jesus used, spoken in his first dialect, Aramaic, which was the heart language for Jews in the first century, was the word, “Abba.” This was often the first word that toddlers would learn to say, like the English word “daddy,” or “dada.” But as the child grew toward adulthood, they would continue to use it, and it would take on the connotations of ‘dearest father.’
God is spirit, and cannot be seen. So it is hard for us to relate with him in the same concrete ways that we interact with a family member. But Jesus invites us to interact with God as our “Abba.” He desires to hear from our lips what is going on with our day, and how we feel about it. He stands ready to share some of his wisdom with us when we read his words, or stop and ask for his help. “Abba, should I take this invitation to dine with my coworker tomorrow? I’ve been feeling very tired. Please guide me.”
My friend Jon’s dad was just a normal person with strengths and faults like the rest of us. But what I enjoyed in his presence, was that he reflected part of who God is, as our father. And I want you to know that true fatherhood means there is someone protecting you, providing for you, interested in you, and waiting for you, one day, to come home. Together in the Journey, Father Cam Lemons
(Father Cam Lemons serves at St. Timothy’s Anglican Church. Service is at 9 a.m. on Sunday at 700 Hobson St. in Bishop. He also serves at Trinity Memorial Anglican Church in Lone Pine. The service there is at noon at 220 N. Lakeview Road. For more information, go to StTimothysBishop.com.)