Last Sunday was the Father’s Day that many of us celebrate. My kids called me and gave me a beautiful greeting card with some nice words in it. They used phrases such as, “you are special”, “I appreciate what you have done for us”, etc. to express their appreciations. I felt touched and thought, “They finally know how to honor their parents.” 🙂 This lets me remember apostle Paul’s teaching to the Church of Ephesus. He gave us a good principle of relationship between parents and children for us to follow. He said, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother”—which is the first commandment with a promise— “so that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth. 你們做兒女的，要在主裡聽從父母，這是理所當然的。「要孝敬父母，使你得福，在世長壽。」這是第一條帶應許的誡命。” (Ephesians 6:1-3).
Traditionally, we were taught to obey our parents as filial piety is one of the virtues emphasized by Confucius in our culture. From my experience, filial piety does help in maintaining proper relationships in a family and stability of a society. Its origin, if we look at it deeper, can be traced back to the reasoning that we were asked to have a thankful heart to our parents because of their laboring for bringing up each one of us. The question is: we thank our parents because we were told to do so or because we “want” to do it? There is a subtle difference in between the two motivations, I think. When my kids said to me “I am special”, it prompts me to think it over what does it really entails.
We all have our experiences in job hunting. I recalled in one of the interviews that I had been through. The interviewer asked me a question, “What makes you so special that I should hire you?” I stuttered for a moment as I wasn’t prepared for this kind of question. Similarly, I wasn’t prepared to answer the intriguing question – apart from I am father to my kids, how special I am to them? Oftentimes, we would say someone is special. This usually does not mean that he / she is perfect or wonderful “in every aspect”. It may very likely mean that he or she possess certain rare traits that are special to us. So, you may ask, is there a person who is special and at the same time, is perfect and wonderful? The answer is “yes” – God!
God is not only special but also is perfect and wonderful! He is special because He loves us so much that He is willing to sacrifice His son — Jesus Christ’s — life for us (John 3:16); He is perfect because He is holy and blameless (Leviticus 11:44-45); He is wonderful because He does marvelous deeds (Psalm 86:10). Apostle Paul reminds us that we received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” (Romans 8:15). And, the Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God (Romans 8:16). Therefore, when we acknowledge that God is our “Heavenly Father”, we would be called God’s children. The question here is do you want to be His children or not?
My dear brothers and sisters, I am not sure whether you are familiar with a hymnal called “Abba Father (阿爸父)” from “Melody of my Heart”, or not. It depicts a longing desire of the author to meet our Heavenly Father. I do hope that we have the similar desire too! The truth is when we realize that how special our Heavenly Father is, we will love to meet Him daily. I pray that you can realize the truth and have His peace and His love surround you, as always….
Disclaimer: The sharing is pure from my personal view; therefore, please don’t take it to be absolute. Thanks.