1 John 5:1

“Everyone who loves the Father loves his child as well.”

If you love the Father, you will love his child. Love the child of the Father. Love.

There are no fatherless children. Literally and figuratively. There are no fatherless children. They might not have a father, but they aren’t fatherless. He is always there, and he, if not in the family, is somewhere.

We have our heavenly father and our earthly father.

Our heavenly father is always there, always loving us, always guiding us, always with us, if, and when, we choose.Many of us have chosen to be fatherless though. We walk away from Him. That’s important to know.

Our earthly father, well, that’s a crap shoot. Some are there, some aren’t. Some are there today, gone tomorrow. Some are trapped in a test tube. Some are “I’m not sure who it is”. Some are oops, forgot the latex. Some are there but brutal. Some are there and loving. Some model their behavior after Christ. Some don’t. Earthly fathers are all over the place.

Everyone who loves the Father loves his child as well. If you love the Father, you will love his child. Love the child of the Father. Love.

Fathers are to love. Fathers are to be just. Fathers are to protect. Fathers are to impart wisdom, teach. Fathers are to show grace and mercy. Fathers are to model God, and consequently, the best father is God.

There’s one more thing fathers are to be: present.

Our Father must be present in our lives, absolutely present, if we are to learn from Him, if we are to be protected by Him, if we are to be molded by Him.

Earthly fathers must be present too, with God and with His/his children. The order: God, wife, children is natural and is only in conflict when it isn’t in place.

Lastly, we are to love all of God’s children as we love God. That’s the whole point of the scripture it seems to me. We all know what it’s like to be loved, or know what we want it to be like. If we don’t know it personally, we dream of what it could be like.

Flip that feeling, that desire, from being internally focused (what I want) to externally focused (what I should do) and you can start to see how God is calling us to live.

There are no fatherless children. We all have two fathers. If the father isn’t around, we can still be loved by the Father. And we are to love on others like the Father livets on us.

Live in love, love in life. Love God’s child as you love your Father, as you love your father.