a dad and an illustration

One thing i love about our multi faceted jewel of a Gospel is how it is illustrated in so much of life. From the poor, homeless immigant being welcomed in to Israel in Ruth, to the culmination of the great redemptive story at Calvary, and so many places in between, we can see illustrations of the Gospel. And thats what i love about my relationship with my girlfriends dad at the moment.

Now my girlfriend is from america, lives in the Bible belt no less. There are more than fourty churches in the phonebook for her 15000 population town. I still can't work out whether thats good or bad. Good i think. The world needs more churches. So because of her background there's a whore lot of cultural stuff that i have to work through in relating to her parents, especially her Father, especially when meeting them for the first time.

I was nervous, i'd been travelling for about twelve hours, and there he was at the airport. And i thank God for our relationship as it is now, i'm glad that we're able to spend so much time together while i was there, and that now we can just call each other for a chat on a friday evening. So now we know eachother, our relationship has changed. I still find myself standing up when he calls on skype to talk to him, and still make sure i call him sir at every oppotunity, but there's relationship, friendship there now which we both enjoy. Formality and respect, but fellowship and love also.

Of course, you can see where i'm going. The relationship i have with God, my Father is hopefully marked by the same things. Fellowship, love, but as much repect and honour as i can fit in on my side. Where there was fear and uncertainty now stand love and friendship. Where failure comes, there's grace. Now, obviously as with all Gospel analogies, this is seriously flawed...no one died to affect this relationship, it's primarily because we're brothers in the first place we can get on so well, but it's taught me about my relationship with God my Father in a new way. And i like that.