God as Father is a concept that is frequently misunderstood and, in today’s world, often difficult to grasp. The role of the father in an earthly household is to provide for his family and to protect them. He is to be strong, brave, and compassionate. To his sons he is supposed to be a model of how to be a man. To his daughters he is supposed to be a model of how men are to properly treat women.

My earthly father is a good and wise man who lived through the Great Depression, served in World War II, and who has done a fine job of instilling a good set of values and ethic of hard work in his children. He is an example of a very good earthly father. Other people have not been so blessed. Many of my friends had earthly fathers who have deserted them, abused them, or abused others in front of them. How do we as Christians say that God the Father is a loving and generous God who protects his children to someone who was raped by their earthly father then deserted by him? It’s a difficult task. Many of us are given such a dim view of our earthly fathers that it’s hard to imagine a Heavenly Father who truly loves us.

I’ve had friends who have said, “Where was God the Father when my earthly father was too drunk to go to our Little League game? Where was God the Father when my earthly father beat our mother and then deserted us?”

The answer is that God the Father has not failed us, but rather that other people have failed us. God was with us during all of those times. Even though our earthly fathers may have failed us, our Heavenly Father wants to protect us and give us good things.

Father of the fatherless and protector of widows
is God in his holy habitation.
God settles the solitary in a home;
he leads out the prisoners to prosperity,
but the rebellious dwell in a parched land. (Psalms 68:5-6)

God is anxious to make up for absent or abusive fathers. One of the most amazing aspects of Christianity is that we have the right not just to call God “Father,” but to call him “daddy.” Accepting Christ into our lives means that we are brothers and sisters in Christ and have a unique relationship with the Creator of the universe, the God and Father of Jesus Christ. God the Father is a doting father who loves to give us good things and protect us. That doesn’t mean that what we see as bad things won’t happen to us — I’m sure that I didn’t understand at the time why my earthly father sometimes let me fall when he was teaching me to walk — but it does mean that God the Father has our best interests at heart and that our eternal safety is guaranteed.

We should not see God the Father not as a stern authoritarian anxious to punish us if we do something wrong, but rather as a broken-hearted father who is rejected by his children whom he wants to protect and heal. That picture is the one given to us by Jesus in the parable of the Prodigal Son:

And he said, “There was a man who had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.’ And he divided his property between them. Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living. And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything.

“But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.”’ And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.

“Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and sound.’ But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, but he answered his father, ‘Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!’ And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.’” (Luke 15:11-32 )

The exile that the son imposes on himself is sin. That exile is good for a while — wine, women, parties, and song — but it soon turns ugly. Once the son sees how terrible his exile is and how he has no protection, he repents and seeks to go home. Significantly, the wayward son does not want or expect mercy. During his time of sin and squandering the good things that his earthly father had given him, he developed a wrong picture of his father as one who would demand payback in full and will make the wayward son work for his love. Instead, the father gladly accepts the son back and gives a party in his honor. That’s how it is with us. The heavens rejoice when a sinner returns home to his heavenly father. Our Heavenly Father doesn’t make us work to pay back the inheritance we have squandered, but instead gives us an even greater inheritance — the inheritance of eternal life with him.

"God the Father is loving, compassionate,
… and wants to be our loving daddy"

God the Father is loving, compassionate, and full of mercy. He longs to hold us in his arms and to heal, comfort and encourage us. He wants to be our loving daddy. We are assured of his response to us as his children: “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.” (James 4:8 )

Here are some more passages which can better help us to understand God as our Heavenly Father:

But now, O Lord, you are our Father;
we are the clay, and you are our potter;
we are all the work of your hand. (Isaiah 64.8)

Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us? Why then are we faithless to one another, profaning the covenant of our fathers? (Malachi 2:10)

“See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now; it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. And every one who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.” (1 John 3:1-3 )

…yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist. (1 Corinthians 8.6 )

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being,  so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3.14-19 )