The answer to the question is nothing new. We are all the children of the Creator and we are all children of society. Our mother has kicked our Father out and is getting a divorce from sanity, so we are all living in a dysfunctional home. And we feel estranged from our Father and unworthy of His time and love. Like so many children that come from broken homes we hate our Father or our mother or both – replace our Father with someone close by – make up an image of our Father to love and/or blame ourselves.
Early in my life, my father and mother split up. I have very few early childhood memories of a father. At times in my life I have tried to hate my father and my mother, replace my father with someone close by, create an image of what my father may be like, and blame myself. None of those things brought peace, because they did not fix the root problems – my mother and father were separated – I was separated from my father. There was nothing I could do about my mother and father. At times it seemed as though there was nothing I could do about my father and I. As I matured my need for my parents to be near me decreased, but the need to know they love me never has. We must realize that God our Father loves us. We are worthy to be children of God. How can you not be worthy to be what you already are – what you were created to be? We are all also worthy to be part of society. But, why was society doing this? Why did she separate herself from God? Why does she stay separated from God?
In my early teens I was very ill and hospitalized. For the first three days I was between life and death. When I came back out into life, my father called me and we talked a little. It was like talking with a stranger, except the stranger knew things about me that I had never told him. Later I spent a week with my father and his family in The Lake of The Ozarks in Missouri. It was an interesting time. Before this time my stepmother was someone without definition. During this time I learned to care about her and dad’s other family. No longer could I hope that someday he would come home. He was home; he belonged with these people. I looked at my younger brothers and sisters and thought how wonderful to have both a mother and a father, both at the same time. But, why does God stay separated from society? Does God have another family?
While still in my teens I started a family and in my mid-twenties I left them. Why? Today I could not tell you why. I’m not sure I know myself. Later, I remarried and my wife and I had a child. I tried bringing my families together but something was missing for the children of my first wife, their mother. My wife was a mother, but not their mother. My wife could provide for some of the needs, but she was not the mother the older children needed their reassurance of love from. With God our Father there is another mother, a sub-society, called a church. At this point I must state that I believe that there should be no difference between society and the church, that is why I say “a church.” Everyone is at someplace in their walk with God, whether they realize it or not. To see the church as a social gathering of people with similar beliefs about the walk with God is too narrowing. That is a church and not the church. To be the church it must be inclusive. Anyone that is searching for answers to the question of God is part of the church. Any one with the potential to be a child of God, and that is all of us, is part of the church. But we are separated from our Father.
God commanded Israel and said, “You shall have no other gods before me.” Earlier he qualified Himself by saying I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of bondage.” After God brought Israel into their lands, they told God they wanted a king. God gave them a king that was everything a man could want to be. But Saul did not follow God, so God brought up David to be king. The Holy Spirit came to a virgin of King David’s bloodline and placed a child in her womb, a Son a God. The man, Jesus, knew Himself to be a child of God and lived His life by that belief. Jesus was killed without cause, because He dared to tell the truth that He was a child of God. Children of the earth stand up and declare that you are a child of God and live your life by that belief. Some want to argue about whether or not Jesus is in fact the same entity as the Father and the only entity that is God. We have no idea of the number of entities that make up the family of God. Remember you are part of the family of God.
At this time I do not have all the answers to all the questions I posed in this writing. I may never have the answers to some of them. The cycle of the dysfunctional family is a hard one to break. It started long before we were born. We need to follow the example of our Lord Jesus and proclaim that we are children of God and teach our children that God is their Father. Then, go into the world and proclaim the good news that we are the children of God. We are also the children of society, this earth, and are responsible for each other. The best we can do for our Father is to tend to the needs of His children.