Getting to know my Father

I am really enjoying this book.

Though God has no body and is neither male nor female, He is Father. (Neal has developed this thought, and I will revisit a couple of the places he has done so, but this next sentence is the one I'm trying to soak in this morning.) Human fatherhood is the pale reflection of God's pure and loving Fatherhood, not the other way around. - Neal Lozano, Abba's Heart

I was already observing how my own experiences of fatherhood, both as a son and, especially (and that word is by no means me being harsh with myself), as a father, fell so utterly short of God's perfect Fatherhood, and here is Neal gently saying that yes, that's true, but it's true for every single one of us. Even the greatest human parent is a flawed, imperfect human being who falls short in some way from being able to provide for everything that his children truly need. It is impossible for us to do more than aspire and strive toward being the sort of parent we have in the Father, in Abba. But neither Jesus's perfection as Son nor Abba's as Father are meant to be standards we can never hope to reach, even when Jesus says, "Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect." (emphasis added) There's a reason why this challenging line from the Sermon on the Mount is only offered in the context of loving our enemies, who do not love us! Abba loves us so perfectly that while we were still sinners (Rom 5:8) He sent His Son to deliver us back into His heart! The perfect Fatherhood of Abba's Heart calls us, no matter how we have been broken, to know Love intimately, closely, as we can only do by loving as we are loved.

from earlier:

Many people grow up in families but still sense they are orphans, feeling lost, lonely, isolated, rejected and abandoned. They cannot receive the affirmation of their fathers and mothers, either because actions speak louder than words or their own wounds do not allow them to accept it. They sense deep down that something is wrong with them, and nobody knows it. They believe that they will never measure up.
Alienation from God the Father can be felt in the pain and emptiness left by our parents, no matter how hard they tried to fill the void. As we walk further down this path, you may be confronted with that pain and emptiness. Do not be afraid. No matter how your life began or what was taken from you, the Father holds in His heart the healing you need. What matters most is that you are moving toward His open arms.

Ahh. Balm.