“If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?” Luke 11:13
Notice that Jesus speaks to his disciples about “your Father in heaven.”
It is a tremendous privilege to be a father. To be a father is to impart life. The life of your child—your son or your daughter—came from the life that is in you. The seed of your life has generated the life of your children.
In a marvelous, wonderful, and sometimes rather frightening way, something of what is in you is also in your children. They will choose their own path in life, but in some sense their life is patterned after your own. That’s why we say, “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”
Now Jesus is telling us that it is possible for us to enjoy a relationship with God in which we know Him as our heavenly Father. This is extraordinary! And the danger is that we become so familiar with speaking about God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, that we do not even stop to think about what this means.
How would it be possible for ordinary people to know God as their Father? That would mean that the seed of the life of God was in them, and that while they make their own free choices, their life is patterned after the life of Almighty God. It would also mean that as their life develops, it will become increasingly obvious that the apple does not fall far from the tree.
Could any of these things be said about you and God?
