Like Father, Like Son

My mother died in 1995. She died in surgery - a surgery that was an attempt to alleviate suffering she had experienced for many years from emphysema. My mother was very close to Jesus. We did not find out until after she had gone to be with the Lord that on the morning she died, she had told a nurse or two that she was going to die because she had been "called." She was happier that morning before surgery than we had ever seen her. Oh, how she is dancing in heaven today!

She was so looking forward to dancing in heaven because much of her last 3 or 4 years were spent in a wheelchair. My father wheeled her almost everywhere she went - and my mother did like to go! In nearly twenty years of helping my mother with her difficult disease and tending to one need after another through the last years of her life, I never heard my father complain. In fact, we were often concerned that his sense of humor (well-developed) might actually bring about her demise from laughing to death! They laughed a lot, and I am sure they cried together, though I don't recall seeing my father cry until the doctor told us that she had died on the operating table.

I often think about my father's gentle care for my mother as I push my precious wife around in her wheelchair. We have had a few close calls - as in me nearly dumping her on the ground - just as my father had nearly dumped my mother on the ground. Linda and I have laughed together, cried together, and I have counted it nothing but a great privilege to serve my wife just as my father served my mother. What a great example Billy Talley has been to me!

The connection I have with my father makes me think about a much more significant Father/Son connection - the connection God the Father had with His Son, Jesus. Jesus made it clear when He was on the earth that He did nothing apart from the will and direction of His Father (which came through the Holy Spirit, thus completing the Trinitarian work on this earth). Though all the gospel writers draw attention to this relationship, John points to the closeness between Father and Son more than the other three.

In John 3:35, John said, "The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hands."(ESV) In his excellent book, The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God, D. A. Carson points out the love between the Father and the Son as one of five unique, yet complementary, loves of God. In John 5:19, Jesus said, "Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of His own accord, but only what He sees the Father doing."

Imagine that! Jesus did nothing apart from the will of His Father! In John 10:38, Jesus said that "the Father is in Me and I am in the Father." Separate persons, same nature, or, same essence. Along with the Spirit, three in one - the Trinity.

And yet, Jesus goes on to identify with His followers (all who believe that He died and rose again to pay for their sins) in a remarkable way as He prayed to His Father just before He was betrayed and crucified. John 17:20-21: "I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word, that they may all be one, just as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You have sent Me."

Does that mean we become deity when we believe in Jesus? HEAVENS, NO! It does mean, though, that we are connected to God in a very significant way - so much so that we call Him "Father." Romans 8:15-16: "For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by Whom we cry, 'Abba! Father!' The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God."

Children of God. Children of our Father. Hmm. If it is so with you, is it truly, "like Father, like son or daughter," for you? Do you seek the will of your Father in heaven, or do you pretty much live life as you see best? Do you seek to please God, or do you seek to please men and women? Does your life reflect your connection with your heavenly Father, or are people surprised when they find out that you belong to God?

Linda and I see and ask these questions of ourselves in high definition these days! Priorities dictate that we spend much time just getting through the day, but the quality of our relationship with the Father is never far from our hearts and minds. There is nothing like a trial to bring the crucial into focus. Knowing what is important is not a problem. Living so that we reflect and radiate the Father's imprint on our lives - that's the challenge. Would you pray that we will passionately seek our Father? Pray that for us, please, only if you are willing to pray the same thing for yourself. That way, we both benefit! Like Father, like son; like Father, like daughter - that's our desire.