Gentle and Lowly, Chapter 14 - “Father of Mercies”
This reflection is by Visio Dei deacon Ryan Lake.
How do you view God the Father? How do you imagine his disposition towards you? In Chapter 14 of Gentle and Lowly, Dane Ortlund asks that very question. How we view God the Father determines how we interact with God. Ortlund says “Who is God the Father? Just that: our Father” To those who have been blessed with a fantastic model of a father in their lives, this may come easy to relate to God in such a way. People in this category may see God the Father as one part of the trinity whose heart differs from that of our merciful savior Jesus. But many have sadly experienced fathers who have done everything they can to poison that title for their children.
I personally love my father dearly, even though he was far from perfect. His imperfections aren’t the primary reason why I have experienced a disconnect from thinking of God the Father as merciful. I think this comes more from my experiences in my life—or rathe, my perception of what God was doing in those moments. I spent the majority of my twenties thinking that God the Father technically loved me, but did not like me. Or if he did like me, He liked me less than my peers. In my youth, none of my assumptions of how I thought my life should turn out if I were following God turned out as planned. I flunked out of Bible college on my path to become a Pastor. I went through an unwanted divorce on my way to becoming a husband. My (now ex-) wife and I experienced a miscarriage on our way to becoming parents. And to top it all off, I spent 10 years working at a prison as a Corrections Officer to pay the bills, a draining occupation that was hard to see the Lord’s hand in.
As I was walking through these moments in my life, it was hard for me to see God the Father as someone who cared much for me. I had assumed that my circumstances were reflective of God having a heart that gained more amusement from my suffering than he did from dispensing mercy. But like the phrase goes, hindsight is 20/20. I can now see God’s merciful hand in all of those circumstances. I see all the ways he has used my experiences to make me the man I am today. I see all the people he has brought into my life whom I love dearly. Through my circumstance, God has been making me a man with thick skin and a soft heart so that I may be able to bear the burdens of my brothers and sisters while patiently walking with them in times of trouble. I would go through it all over again for this result.
Ortland speaks the truth when he says “...God is not that of a Father whose central disposition is judgment and a Son whose central disposition is love. The heart of both is one and the same; this is, after all, one God, not two.” Our God is three-in-one and maintains the same heart and character among his three persons. In fact, it is said in Scripture that God the Father is the “Father of mercies and God of all comfort” (2 Corinthians 1:3). As a father begets a son, mercy and comfort are begotten from our Heavenly Father, more so than from any earthly source.
We are the adopted sons and daughters of our almighty Father who loves us dearly. Sometimes it just takes time to see this evidence, just as it does for us as we grow from children to adults.