College is such a weird time. For many, it includes moving away from your parents and away from the comfortable. It means moving away from the normal and into the unknown. And, for our parents, the consistent routine of making breakfast, packing lunches, and waiting up for us late into the evening for curfew.
As we grow up we often hear the saying, “Life moves so quickly..enjoy every moment..” For the Christian Faith there are two distinct “moments” that we must embrace, understand, and cherish. First, we have our time on this side of heaven. Second, we have our eternal time with our Father in Heaven.
But did you catch what was just said? God has never stopped being our father, and our authority. I am beginning to see that as Christians, we often forget that our Father is our father now, will be our father forever in Heaven, and has long been our father for eternity. If time is not attached to the Lord, and He really is the omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent God that we fear and love, we have always been His children and always will be His. He is our father before we were conceived. He is our father while we fall into sin on this earth, and He is our father when we meet him face to face and become “like Him for we shall see Him as He is”. (1 John 3:2) We will never be perfect in the flesh as Jesus Christ lived and breathed. But we will be “like” our father again one day, without weakness or imperfection. And for once, we can see our Father as He really is for everlasting life. These glorified bodies will be without sin and error: we will never grow sick or die.
Let us keep in mind that as Christians, we know the end of the story. Let us also keep in mind that God knows the end of the beautiful story He has created. This being said, God has allowed his created children to step into a world with uncertainty. Just as our parents let us step into a new college environment, or move to a new state, Jesus allowed his perfect children to enter into a world of sin.
I do not believe that the earthly sadness of parting ways with my parents at my college orientation can compare to the strength it takes for our God to witness His creation facing temptation daily on Earth. God did not have to do this though...God does not have to do anything. Instead, we are placed on this earth with one great decision: with our free will, will we choose to return to our father in Heaven and listen to his commandments for his children.
The family unit we have been blessed with on Earth is just as much for our growth and enjoyment as it is a clear analogy of our Father’s love for us. The love of our earthly mother and father is something we can appreciate and comprehend. Our eternal father though has even more interest in our well being and our pursuance of Himself than our mother and father. For me that is often hard to imagine, but it certainly adds gravity to the concept of “free will”.
Just as God allowed his sons and daughters to walk on an earth that would later be tainted by sin, we are allowed to choose if we return to the place He has created for us. God has a lot on the line for us, doesn’t He?
God has taken on the role of “empty nesting” so that we can grow, learn, trust, and grow in FAITH. Without leaving the Lord, we would never be able to learn about what it means to have a family, grow in a marriage that is the representation of Christ’s love for the church, or have our own children and let us feel parental responsibility.
In fact, God gave us the right to become children of God. The Lord let us be lights in a dark world, even though we face and fall to things of darkness. “He gave the right to become children of God, who were born not of blood nor the will of the flesh nor the will of man, but of God”. (John 1:12-13. We were born of God, and love in a world that is now not of God. Yet, he allows it. He allows it for our learning and for our free will. He blesses us with an option to return to Him once more. And, he blessed us with Fatherly wisdom through faith. And, he blesses us with a safe home where we can return: and he is always waiting up long into the evening for us.
“As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him”. (Psalm 103:13)
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