Everlasting Father

✨God, Our Everlasting Father✨

My papà was an extraordinary human. He had a warm, vibrant personality—brilliant, inquisitive, and knowledgeable about many things. He was extremely hard-working, capable, charming, and fun. Plus, he was a great cook. He also had some very destructive issues that left scars. I miss him deeply—both the relationship we had in the best of times, and the relationship we never had. He died 25 years ago.

Our human fathers can be tremendous resources—rocks and refuge. They can also be abusive or negligent. They can be wonderfully ordinary, or any combination of traits (some of which we inherit). They are, for sure, human—and therefore mortal.

Not so our Heavenly Father. He is perfectly loving, perfectly just, perfectly wise, and perfectly powerful. And He is everlasting.

As a woman with some daddy issues, I cherish the fact that Isaiah’s cornerstone prophecy about Jesus includes “Everlasting Father.”

More than ever, I want to honor the vastness of this truth and live my life accordingly: to know God as our triune, everlasting Father, to see myself as a cherished daughter, and to trust Him—filtering everything I do and experience through that fundamental reality.

For those of us who had difficult fathers or challenging lives, the idea of God as Father may not feel safe or true. We must not be naïve about the reality of a holy God, a broken world shaped by free will and its consequences, and the inherent challenges of life in Christ—challenges Jesus Himself calls eternally blessed (Matthew 5:1–12).

I think I want to stop there and let that thought germinate in my spirit.

PRACTICE

Journal the characteristics of a really good dad—and consider your list in light of the God of the universe.

PRAYER

Heavenly Abba,

For some of us, this name—Everlasting Father—feels tender and thorny. With our limited human understanding, help us see and receive the fullness of who You are: a perfectly loving, triune, everlasting Father.. Thank You for giving Your one and only Son, that in Him we might become Your adopted children. Teach us to trust You and to live as sons and daughters who are deeply loved.

I love You. 💖

DIG DEEPER:

John 14:9–18

Hebrews 12:5–11

Romans 8:15–17

1 John 3:1

2 Corinthians 6:17–18

Galatians 4:4–7