Daddy's Child

If we could truly know God as Father, as daddy, we would experience the relief that He views even our most heinous of sins as a daddy does: the breaking of a saucer while helping mommy wash dishes; hiding after breaking daddy’s favorite coffee mug; crayon drawing on the wall; missing the nail and marring the finish on a kitchen cabinet while trying to fix it for mommy; a temper tantrum in response to parental edict; mischief on a lazy summer’s afternoon; a spate with a childhood best friend; tracing an ant’s path instead of attending a duty; scribbles of a preschooler writing a letter to Daddy; nightmare terror in the dark, the panic of a three-year-old when separated from Mommy in a crowded store; breaking brother’s toy in revenge for his tattling; grabbing the biggest cookie. All the evil of the world is in the heart of a child. What presidents and rulers do to their enemies; what the rapist, the serial killer does; what the greedy capitalist does in stealing the widow’s home and pension; what we are in grown-up life is written in miniature in the mind of the child. All that we are lies small in the tiny self of the three-year-old child. We are what we were then becoming; we were then what we now are. In infinite parenthood, He daddys us all. No matter our tantrum, our childish terror, our forgetful repetition of the same old mistake, with infinite love, tenderness and patience, He loves us back to himself. No matter how often we carelessly smash His heart, His loving arms still enfold; His hands still wipe the tears; His lips soothe with a father’s kiss. What all the best fathers are in finite, He is in perfection: our Daddy. 12.9.12