5th January 2024

Dear son…

Then a voice came from heaven, “You are My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
Mark 1:11 (NKJV)

One of my earliest memories was waking up to find my dad packing his rucksack. ‘Where are you going, Dad?’ ‘Hiking.’ ‘Can I come with you?’ ‘No, not this time.’ Well, not any time, as it turned out. I was five years old and I didn’t see my father again until I was an adult.

I am far from being the only person who has grown up without a father. In the UK today, there are approximately two million children who have no meaningful contact with theirs, who never get to hear their father say the words from our header scripture: “You are My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

But the beautiful truth of this passage in Mark’s gospel is that when God the Father spoke those words to his son Jesus as he rose out of the river Jordan, he spoke them to all of us. Because, in his baptism, Jesus represented all humankind. Which means that when God the Father looks at us, he sees his own dear son, and he loves us just as much as he loves Jesus.

In his commentary on Mark’s first chapter, Tom Wright explains, ‘The whole Christian gospel could be summed up in this point: that when the living God looks at us…he says to us what he said to Jesus on that day. He sees us, not as we are in ourselves, but as we are in Jesus Christ.’

Your human father may not be perfect, mine certainly wasn’t. But what a comfort to know that our heavenly Father loves us unreservedly, just as he loves Jesus. And because of the forgiveness we have in Jesus, we are able to find forgiveness for our own fathers’ flaws.

Prayer
Loving, heavenly Father, Psalm 68:5 tells us that you are a Father to the fatherless. How encouraging it is to know that you love us as you love your only begotten son! We give you grateful thanks, in Jesus’s holy name, Amen.

Study by Peter Mill

About the writer:
Peter Mill is a minister in Grace Communion International and Co-Regional Pastor for Scotland, Ireland, and Northern England.

Local congregation:
Grace Communion International Central Glasgow
Garnethill Room
Conference Suite
St Andrews West
260 Bath Street
Glasgow
G2 4JP

Meeting time:
Sunday 11:15 am                                           

Local congregational contact:   
Peter Mill
Email: edinburgh@gracecom.church

Word of Life contact:
wordoflife@gracecom.church