I love mornings with my son, Skyler. When he wakes up, one of the first words out of his mouth is “Da-a-ddy.” In a milli-second, I’m barreling into his room with outstretched arms. He’s usually standing up in his toddler bed, with tussled hair and bleary eyes, ready to leap into my arms. The first thing he wants to do is look into the mirror on his wall. (This is brave. I’m not a pretty sight early in the morning. Of course, some of my friends would say I’m never a pretty sight, regardless of what time of day it is.) While I’m holding him, he points at the reflection of me in the mirror and says over and over, “Da-ddy... Da-ddy.”

    There is nothing unusual or extraordinary about this. This exchange between a parent and a small child happens every day all over the world. Why are we so enthralled with being called “daddy” or “mommy” in those early years of parenthood? Haven’t you seen your share of parents teaching (or maybe badgering) their infants and toddlers to call them by name? “Can you say ‘daddy?’ Can you say ‘mommy?’ Say it... please say it!”

    Prior to parenthood I thought this desire was some kind of parental ego trip. After my first year of fatherhood I realized that it was nothing but a love trip. To love someone is to long to be loved by that someone. From the initial moments of parenthood we long for our children to see us, know us, call us, and respond to us.

    So it is with God and His children. God longs for us to see Him, know Him, call Him, and respond to Him. His heart beats for such things. It’s significant that of the scores of names that belong to God in Scripture, Jesus instructs us to address God as our “Father” when we pray to Him (Matt. 6:9). While God is, no doubt, honored when we address Him as our King, Rock, Shelter, Refuge, Deliverer, Savior, Redeemer, Warrior or Friend, the name He longs for us to call Him is “Father.” God reveals His desire for an intimate relationship by asking us to use such a term of endearment when we call upon Him.

A Glorious Father

    The apostle Paul called God the “glorious Father” or the Father of glory” (Eph. 1:17). The word “glory” is often used but seldom understood. What does it mean and how does it help us to understand what kind of Father God is?

    My wife and I are different in many respects. But perhaps one of our most glaring differences appears when we change the diapers of our little ones. She is a waste management specialist, doing it with speed and efficiency while using a minimal number of wipes and leaving no residue. As for me, well, I am twice as slow, not nearly as efficient, use three times as many wipes, and sometimes make more of a mess than I had when I began.

    Because I’m not very quick and Skyler is moving quicker, changing diapers has become a challenge. More than once he’s managed to elude me in the midst of a diaper change and lead me on a wild goose chase throughout our house. If you are a parent you probably have chased a stark-naked toddler around while trying to strap on a diaper (on the toddler, not you). Inevitably, my wife or I will exclaim in response to his nakedness, “There he is! In all his glory!”

    Why do we say that? Because, believe it or not, that’s exactly what “glory” means. It is the visible presence of something that was once invisible. It is the revealed presence of something that was once concealed. To glorify something is to bring out into the open what is hidden. When the Bible speaks of the glory of God, it is speaking of the manifest presence of God.

    When Paul attached the adjective “glorious” to the word “Father” he was acknowledging that God is the type of father who puts Himself in position to be seen, known, called upon and responded to. He doesn’t hide from us or make it difficult for us to get to know Him. Isaiah 6:3 records the words of the seraphs hovering over and around the throne of God in the heavenly realms-the whole earth is full of his glory!” The earth is indeed full of God’s manifest presence. The Apostle Paul acknowledged this in Romans 1:20: “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities-his eternal power and divine nature-have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made.”

    God has made it possible for us to come to know Him through the visible and tangible things of our world. Have you ever looked at a sunset and been reminded of who’s really in charge of this world? Have you ever gawked at majestic mountain peaks and been jerked back into the reality of how much bigger God is than you and your problems? Have you ever shaken your head at the brilliant lines, patterns and colors on the wings of a butterfly and contemplated the stunningly detailed imagination of the Creator? Then you’ve seen God’s glory and encountered the efforts of a Father longing to be recognized by His children.

The Extraordinary in the Ordinary

    In her work “Aurora Leigh,” Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote:

Earth’s crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God;
But only he who sees takes off his shoes;
The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.

    Browning eloquently acknowledges a curiously common feature of how God has worked in the lives of human beings for thousands of years. He has wrapped Himself up in the clothing of the ordinary things, events and people of our everyday lives. His taking on human form in the person of Jesus Christ isn’t the only example, it’s just the ultimate one. Both before and since the carpenter from Nazareth walked the dusty roads of our planet, God has been engaged in the work of clothing the extraordinary in the ordinary and using the ordinary to teach us about the extraordinary.

God has been engaged in the work of clothing the extraordinary in the ordinary and using the ordinary to teach us about the extraordinary.

    He used a worm and a vine to get a message across to the cantankerous prophet Jonah. He used a linen belt and a visit to a potter’s house to instruct Jeremiah. He even used a donkey, of all things, to speak some sense into Balaam. And who can forget how He got Moses attention? It was through an ordinary thorn bush, set ablaze in the middle of a desert, that God called him.

    A pagan once asked a rabbi why God chose to speak to Moses from a thorn bush. He thought that God would have spoken through the deafening sound of thunder and the blinding sight of lightning on the peak of some magnificent mountain. The rabbi answered, “To teach you that there is no place on earth where God’s glory is not, not even in a humble thorn bush.“1 The ordinary things, events and people of our everyday lives often house the extraordinary and instruct us regarding the extraordinary. Such instruction never contradicts the revelation of Scripture but rather brings old truths into new light.

    Browning was also aware that it’s possible for us to miss the extraordinary in the midst of the ordinary. Many times we do not “see” and “take off our shoes.” Instead, we “sit around and pluck blackberries.” Paul wrote to the believers in Ephesus, “I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened (Eph. 1:17-18). “That you would know him better”-this is the passion of a lover of God. It’s in and through the ordinary that our extraordinary Father pursues us and interacts with us on a daily basis. For this reason, I frequently pray for the the eyes of my heart to be opened so that I can see the Extraordinary One through the ordinary things, events and people in my life.

The Rookie

    When Tara first told me she was pregnant I was bombarded with a variety of feelings ranging from excitement, to apprehension, to sheer terror and, eventually, nausea. After going through the initial, and what I would later learn to be fairly normal, feelings of a rookie-to-be dad, I had the peculiar sense that I was about to be thrust into a learning curve. Of course I was going to find out “up close and personal” what happens to a woman s body, mind, and emotions when she becomes a home for another human being. But I also sensed that I was going to learn a great deal about myself in the coming months.

    In the months preceding the birth of our firstborn, I made a deliberate effort to pray for God to give me a spirit of wisdom and revelation for the purpose of knowing him better through the first experiences of fatherhood. As wondrous and mysterious as childbirth and parenthood are, these experiences are nevertheless quite common. The last thing I wanted to do was leave my shoes on, sit around and pluck blackberries.

    It doesn’t really surprise me that God would use a baby as an instrument of instruction and revelation in my life. After all, the children that the disciples saw as a hindrance to Jesus became an instrument of teaching in His hands (Luke 18:15-17). “I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” Jesus used children to teach adults a critical lesson about their spiritual lives. And He still does today.

    In Scripture one of the most common metaphors describing the dynamics of the relationship between God and human beings is the relationship between a father and his children. It only makes sense that the initial experiences of fatherhood in my life would bring me fresh insights into old biblical truths about the heart of God. Through my rookie experiences of fatherhood I hope I can convey to you some of the wonder and mystery of our relationship with God.

    What I’m going to share with you from my rookie experiences really isn’t as much about my sons and me as it is about God and us. I’ve caught a glimpse of God’s heart for me through my heart for my son, and I hope that you will catch a glimpse into God’s heart for you as well. I’m well aware that my journey is just beginning.

    Some of you are already far down the road of parenthood and have important milestones in your rear view mirrors that I can’t even see out of my front windshield right now. Perhaps I can serve to help you frame such experiences and milestones and give you a moment to “see,” “take off your shoes” and consider what the Extraordinary has to say to you through the ordinary.

    Others of you have yet to travel the road of parenthood — or may never. The metaphor of parenthood should not deter you in the least from reading this book; in fact it can encourage you to keep your spiritual eyes open for the ordinary bushes that are set ablaze by God in your life. The old rabbi was right. There’s no place on earth where God’s glory is not. I invite you to visit the burning bush of rookie fatherhood with me. I hope that, together, we’ll journey so deeply into the heart of God that we’ll never find our way out.

© 2001, Chris Seidman. Excerpted from Little Buddy, New Leaf Books, 2001. Used by permission.
Title: "Mornings With Skyler"
Author: Chris Seidman
Publication Date: June 2, 2001

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