Forever Children John 1:10-13

John 1:10–13 (NASB95) ¹⁰ He [Jesus] was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. ¹¹ He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. ¹² But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, ¹³ who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

1 John 3:1 (NASB95) ¹ See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.

Theoretically, God could have created the world very differently from the world He did.  Most animals reach adulthood within a year or so.  But human beings take far longer than any other living thing to reach full maturity.

And why might that be?

Because God see us, at least those of us who believe in Jesus, as His children.  Those of us who are adults now don’t usually think of ourselves as children of somebody else, but certainly not as children as all.  We like to think of ourselves as equal to our parents.

But to God we are always His children.

And this is why we have families.  So we know, understand, and always remember the feelings of childhood, because to God we are always there.

This is why when our children grow up, there are more children, the grandchildren, to capture again the idea of what it means to be a kid.

I venture to say that one of the hardest parts of being a Christian is getting and having this sense of family, that we are God’s children, He is our Father, and a Father delights in his children. 

We are always more focused on how we are doing.  Are we good enough?  Did we not fail at this or that? 

Yes, we know that our salvation is not in jeopardy when we sin, or fail, but we can’t help but think that God is not pleased with us.  We screwed up on something, and now He has to chastise us, for our good no doubt, but we have lost the sheer delight of childhood, of just loving to be with our parents and their doting love over us. 

We have families to teach us about God.  We have the Bible to tell us what it’s like, but we often need to see what it looks like.  Families aren’t perfect, but it’s the best we have.  Somewhere, whether it’s as a child, a parent, a spouse, we know what it feels like to be loved, unconditionally.  And God loves us more.