“Look at how great a love the Father has given us, that we should be called God’s children. And we are!” 1 John 3:1
The first of three stories about Madison Turner begins with her teaching a sixth grade class and she is ill at ease. The class isn’t what was making her nervous. The presence of her father does a number on her mind as she remembers her childhood and the effect her father has had on her. We are given a look into the silent secrets of her heart: “Madison remembered the hot pain his open hand caused, and the scorching tears she tried hard to hold back. And he would not stop with one. He kept going until she lost all her defiance and crumbled into a corner. When her father left the room, her mother gathered her little shaking body in her arms and tried to soothe her. But in her childish heart she knew her mom was just as afraid. And when Mom died and left her alone she promised she would never be afraid of him again.”
The wounds inflicted by a parent run deep, controlling the choices we make and the way we relate to others. Madison carried her wounds into adulthood and sought to medicate them with alcohol, which only made her worse. You can read the rest of her story in The Phoenix Chronicles.
I know what this kind of a hurt can do all too well. But it doesn’t have to control us for the rest of our lives. There is abundant healing in Jesus and with that healing a place in the Father’s heart of perfect love without the threat of pain. We can call Him Father and He rejoices to call us His children. These aren’t empty words to make us feel warm all over. They are truth I stake my life on.
“But to all who did receive Him, He gave them the right to be called children of God, to those who believe in His Name.” John 1:12
Daddy’s Love
