Jesus Called God \u201cOur Father\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\nAmerica\u2019s culture is experiencing questions about male-female identity. Some folks claim we should not call God \u201cFather,\u201d some even opting for calling God \u201cMother.\u201d The other day, I saw a girl wearing a shirt that said, \u201cI\u2019m Not From Your Rib,\u201d obviously disagreeing with the Genesis account about God creating the first man, putting him to sleep, and taking a rib from him with which to fashion Eve (Genesis 2.21-22).<\/p>\n
Yet Jesus is the one who taught us to call God \u201cour Father.\u201d The most famous saying of Jesus is the so-called Lord\u2019s Prayer. It begins, according to Matthew (Luke also has an account), \u201cOur Father in heaven\u201d (Matthew 6.9). And in so much of Jesus\u2019 teaching, as recorded in the New Testament gospels, he spoke of God by calling him \u201cFather.\u201d<\/p>\n
But of course, God is neither male nor female. This is evident in the very beginning of the Bible. We read, \u201cGod said, \u2018Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness'\u201d (Genesis 1.,26 NRSV). The text does not explain who God was speaking to. Jews believe, and so do I, that God was speaking to a special class of angels. Some say it was his royal council of angels. I rather think it was the archangels who do his bidding regarding creation.<\/p>\n
This Genesis text continues, \u201cSo God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them, male and female he created them\u201d (v. 27). And later in Genesis we read again, \u201cWhen God created humankind, he made them in the likeness of God, male and female he created them\u201d (Genesis 5.1-2). So, both male humans and female humans are made in the likeness of God, which suggests that God is neither male nor female. Plus, Jesus said of humans who will live in the consummated kingdom of God on earth, \u201cthose who are considered worthy of a place in that age and in the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. Indeed, they are like angels\u201d (Luke 20.35-36). I believe he means that angels are neither male nor female and therefore they do not marry, and that is how it will be for those people of God who will be resurrected from the dead at the end of this age.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Good Father Effect\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\nSaturday, the Wall Street Journal<\/em> reported that a new study of 1,600 teenagers by the Harvard Education Graduate School\u2019s project called Making Caring Common reveals that twice as many teens feel comfortable sharing their emotions with their mothers as with their fathers, which should come as no surprise. But study reveals that teens would benefit more from their fathers if this practice was equal.<\/p>\nThe WSJ<\/em> article also reports that a 2021 study published in the Journal of Family Psychology<\/em> examined 380 teenagers over several years which reveals, \u201cthe protective effects of father-youth intimacy may be more apparent than those of mother-youth intimacy. Called \u201cthe good father effect,\u201d the author of this article, Jennifer Breheny Wallace, says \u201cchildren with better emotional balance\u201d have \u201chigher levels of social competence, peer relationships, academic achievement and resilience, while poor emotional regulation skills are linked with anxiety, depression and behavioral problems Boys can be especially affected by whether fathers are part of the emotional equation.\u201d<\/p>\nMaybe there is something about calling God \u201cour Father\u201d that we don\u2019t know so much about.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jesus Called God \u201cOur Father\u201d America\u2019s culture is experiencing questions about male-female identity. Some folks claim we should not call God \u201cFather,\u201d some even opting for calling God \u201cMother.\u201d The other day, I saw a girl wearing a shirt that said, \u201cI\u2019m Not From Your Rib,\u201d obviously disagreeing with the Genesis account about God creating […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1477,"featured_media":17247,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[494],"tags":[2952,7188,2571,7185],"class_list":["post-17616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-jesus","tag-god-as-father","tag-god-neither-male-nor-female","tag-jesus","tag-the-good-father-effect"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a><\/p>\n