"Abba" means "Daddy"

As children in Sunday School, we are taught that Jesus loves us. That He came and died on the cross to save us from our sins so that we can spend eternity in Heaven with Him. We are taught that when Adam and Eve sinned, they caused a rift, or chasm, to be created, permanently separating us from God. Then we are told that it is because God is holy that this rift is necessary. He can't associate with sin. The solution was sending Jesus to die on the cross. John 3:16, probably the most well known verse in the Bible says "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him, should not perish, but have everlasting life." All of that is true. But in the course of teaching us about how Jesus is God's son, and that He came to die for us, a point seems to often get lost. It was GOD'S love that enabled Jesus to come down and give His life. I grew up feeling like Jesus was my friend, but God was the Holy being in the sky that could only love me because Jesus had been willing to give His life. The result was that I didn't really feel like God loved me much at all, except because He had to. I mean, what kind of a Father would he be if He didn't love those that He made? What kind of a Father would he be if He let Jesus die, and the relationship didn't change? It's only been recently that my thinking has started to shift.

God doesn't HAVE to love us, He CHOOSES to love us. He didn't LET Jesus die, He SENT Him to die. For me. One of God's names is Abba. You find most often connected to the word Father, so the name becomes Abba Father. This is slightly misleading in today's culture. See, for modern Americans, "Father" is the stiff, formal way of addressing the male being being who helped create you. There's not a lot of love associated with the word "Father." For some people, to grow up referring to their Dad as "Sir" might make a better connection. In that title, there is respect, but little else. It detaches the person from their role as a loving caregiver. Today, people refer to those who were really a parent to them as Dad, or sometimes "Daddy." That's really what Abba means. It is the most loving way to refer to God. It signifies His role as a real, loving parent, not just some being who created you and now kind of loves you because He has to. It denotes respect, and acknowledgement of God's position in our lives (I would never refer to my Dad as "Daddy" and then be disrespectful to him), but it shows the true care that God has for us.

 For me, for some reason, I never saw God the way I saw my Dad. God was distant. God didn't really seem to care too much about what happened to me. It didn't matter how much people could tell me that God cared for me, if I didn't experience it, then it couldn't be true right? I knew He existed, and there was a vast amount of respect for Him, but not a whole lot of LOVE. Changing this view of God, from one of "I made you, I invested time and energy in you, so I will take care of you," to one of "I love you, I want what's best for you, and I will do whatever I need to in order to make that happen," is good for me. It is showing me a God that I really want to KNOW, rather than one I just follow out of fear and respect.