Finding Dadનમૂનો

One morning as I was reading the Bible and enjoying a cup of coffee (said every Christian ever), a man in a hooded sweatshirt dashed across my back door.  The spirit of Liam Neeson rose up in me, and before I knew it, I had a 9mm in my hands and was ordering my wife and daughter into the closet to hide and call the cops.  I ran into the backyard only to catch a glimpse of the assailant rounding the corner of my neighbor’s house.  Not wanting to cause a neighborhood frenzy, I tossed the 9mm onto the couch as I ran through the house and out the front door to catch the suspect.  I could hear my wife screaming on the phone with the police, “My husband has a gun and is chasing a guy who was searching around our house.”  0 to 100, real quick.  I rounded my neighbor’s house and was face to face with the perpetrator.  I lunged into him like a linebacker protecting the goal line.  Pressing him against the fence, I said, “What are you doing around our houses?”  He began hyperventilating while screaming, “Sir, please don’t.  It’s my first day.  I’m a meter reader.”

We walked around the corner of the house to squad cars ready for a standoff with an officer yelling, “Drop your weapons!”  The meter reader nearly passed out while I explained the blunder to the police.  I apologized repeatedly until the officer stopped me and said, “Sir, please stop apologizing.  We’re thankful nothing happened.  You were just a father protecting your house.”

The greatest sense of protection we experience should come from our fathers.  When our relationship with Dad is compromised, so is our sense of protection.  God redeemed the protection of the father through Jesus.

In Romans 8, Paul declares, “All who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.”  He clarifies, “You have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves.”  Expanding his point, Paul gloriously proclaims that we’ve received a Spirit – by way of adoption as children – that participates in the glory of the Lord, rids us of fear, and triumphs over sin leaving us screaming out, “Abba Father.”  The vulnerability and fear we experience from the father wound turn into a triumphant declaration of Abba Father, our Protector.  Take heart and rest safely in the Spirit.  We have a Father who protects us.