God, our Father

God has declared Himself to be a Father, and those redeemed by His grace are His children. 

   God wants us to know 
  the glory of that reality.  

Hopefully, this might help you:
[Picture a] little child walking hand in hand with his father—a picture of the normal Christian life. God has you by the hand. He loves you. You trust him. Things are good between you because your sins are forgiven and there has been a wonderful reconciliation. There is a smile upon his face and a firm, caring grip in his hand. His face looks kind and tender and warm, like he really enjoys this moment with his little child.

And then coming toward you on the sidewalk there appears a very scary looking man. His hair is all wild, and his eyes are glazed and piercing, and he looks terribly angry and dangerous. You squeeze your daddy's hand a little more tightly. He feels it and responds with a firmer grip. The man stops about ten feet in front of you and stares into your face and says, "Hey stupid! You still like to hold hands with your mama?" As he glares at you, you feel terrified. And as you turn your face away from this terrible threat, you look up at your daddy's face.

Now let me ask you, what do you want to see when you look up? Let me answer it for myself. I don't want to see the same face that I was enjoying one minute ago. At this moment I don't want to see mainly kindness, tenderness, warmth. I want to see strength, indignation, and confidence. And I want to feel a new kind of grip, that is so tight it would be uncomfortable in ordinary circumstances, but now says, "You won't slip even if you faint, and no one can take you out of my hand."

And as you look up, your father steps between you and the man and says, "You better cool it mister. I'm his father." And then he shields you as he walks boldly right by the man and leaves him behind.

The point of this picture is simply this: we need to see the rugged, steep, granite cliffs of God's character as well as the soft, green, clover-covered grasslands. We need to see the tough features in the face of Christ as well as the tender ones.This comes from: "What Judas's Death Teaches Us About The Spirit" - a sermon by John Piper

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