SONS AND DAUGHTERS

Madonna and Child, London, EN

During a ninety year period from 1850-1930 around 250,000 orphaned, abandoned and homeless children from the teeming cities were placed on “Orphan Trains” and most were adopted by families throughout the expanding American West. In Romans 8 Paul reveals that we received the spirit of adoption from the grace of our Creator and “by Him we cry, ‘Abba, Father’. The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children”.

We were created in the divine image with qualities of mind and spirit that separate us from all other living beings. One of the basic aspects of our humanness involves our relationships. When it comes to family relationships we can be a son, daughter, parent, grandparent, great grandparent, aunt, uncle, etc. But when it comes to our relationship with our Creator, we are all simply sons and daughters.

When Jesus taught us to pray The Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6, he started with the words “Our Father, who art in Heaven” and he addressed God as Abba or Father a total of 170 times in the Bible. Jesus created a new way of praying that is as natural as a child talking to his father. By creating us in his own image, God truly wanted someone to love and someone capable of returning that love.

And that qualifies all of us on this spinning orphan train of life as sons and daughters of one universal and eternal family of God. Ultimately, we need to take better care of each other and start treating each other like the sons and daughters we were created to be.