A Long Night
Our niece Karen is stuck tonight in Paris. She has spent the last semester going to school in France. She was due home today. Unfortunately, her scheduled flight was cancelled. So she took a train to Paris, is spending the night in the airport and was due to fly home to North Carolina by way of England tomorrow. Except now that flight to England is cancelled. Erick and I got involved because Karen was able to "Skype" a call to her Uncle Rick when she couldn't get hold of her parents. (Skype uses the computer to make phone calls. She was able to use her lap top, get on the internet and call home. One of our computers is always on it seems.) He called his brother who called his daughter and took it from there.
My brother-in-law and his wife are terrific parents. They have raised three grown children to be independent, think on their feet and be self reliant. It doesn't matter if Karen is grown and in college. Neither parent is going to sleep well until their youngest is back on this side of the Atlantic. They will do everything in their power to bring her home safe. If that means driving to New York or paying for a whole new flight, if that is what it takes. they'll do it. If she needs them, her parents are there for her. And if she needs them to let her take care of this on her own, they'll let her, even if its the harder of the two to do.
God's love is like that. I can almost imagine what it was like for Mary and Joseph as they waited for the birth of the promised infant. I can not imagine what it was like for an all powerful Father God to allow his beloved to come to earth as a poor human infant, subject to all the dangers of being born in a manger and raised by a carpenter. If God sleeps, I doubt God got much more sleep than my sister-in-law is getting tonight.
Theologians and Clergy talk a lot about the language we use to discribe God. We must attempt to be inclusive in our language, so that it does not become a barrier to belief. Father was used by our Lord. It's not perfect.
Some parents may not the best example of God's love. In fact, sometimes a poor relationship with a mother or especially a father can get in the way of understanding God's free and abundant grace. If you have never experienced unearned or undeserved love, it is difficult to accept it from God. God can be at best a distant creator who is not involved with creation, at worst God can seem to be a demanding tyrant who seeks to punish us. It seems to me, that if we can bring our children up to know that our love is not dependent on what they do or don't do, then they are 75% of the way toward understanding God who loved us before we were even born.