God, called the “Godhead” by theologians, means various things to different people. We often forget that God Is Existence, but has three characteristics, which theologians incorrectly call “Persons.” Referring to God as a “Person” diminishes who He is. God IS a Divine Being, persons are “human beings.” Having existence is “being.” Therefore, God is Divine Existence, and persons are human existence. “Humans” are “persons” and their foremost identifier is “personality” – how they interact with their existence.
All that defining is for two reasons: (1) To exalt the Creator above the created, and (2) to show how humans are similar to God but not God. The Holy Trinity are the three ways God interacts with humans. The Father is the Creator, the Holy Spirit is God’s Strength to Create, maintain, and love; and the Son is God manifested in human form. Before God became flesh, he still manifested Himself in different forms, and sometimes even in human form. Regardless of how God manifested Himself to man, the manifestation is the aspect of God that we call “Jesus.”
Jesus is not another God, or another form of God. Jesus IS God; “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father” (John 14:9). Isaiah, Ezekiel, Abraham, Moses, and all the patriarchs saw God; some saw God physically, others saw God spiritually, many heard God, and even some saw God in time as they saw Jesus in visions before God took on flesh. The patriarchs were as much Christians as late-comers are. In fact, those who saw Jesus before he was born are the foundation of the Church (Ephes 2:20).
With that said, humans are mere humans, but God is Divine, or Excellent – something we are not! At best, before Adam even sinned, he was only “very good” (Gen 1:31). We are in God’s image, but much lesser than God. It is imperative to understand our place as persons in existence. God IS Existence, and persons are just a small part of it. However, we humans perceive ourselves as the totality of existence. How arrogant of the created to magnify ourselves as such! Rebirth is reversing that perception of ourselves; to come to the conclusion that we are much lesser than God, cannot preserve ourselves for eternity but God can. Even thinking that our existence will fade by fate is not magnifying God. Ask yourself, Why do I exist? If the answer is, It just happened, then God’s Existence is denied. Jesus, therefore, is the ONLY “person” of the Holy Trinity, and is the ONE personality of God, remembering that “personality” is how a being interacts within its existence, or the world, in the case of persons who defined by their flesh. God took on flesh to interact with His beings in their limited existence. The Jews always required a sign (1 Cor 1:22). Jesus is the “sign” of God, but yet the Jews still failed to recognize God when they saw Him face-to-face! Gentiles (the Greeks for example) recognize God through wisdom. For instance, I believe in Jesus, not because I have seen God, but trust that He exists because many before me saw and recognized Jesus as God. Jesus is the only person who has ever died, still lives, and interacts with human beings via Jesus’s Holy Ghost.
Neither is the Holy Ghost another God or even another Being. He, for lack of a better pronoun, He IS “God With Us.” The Holy Ghost is “Emanuel” just as Jesus was called that! Perhaps it would be better if people quit perceiving God as three persons, but three identities co-existing at the same time. For instance, Jesus was not created; he was there as God in the beginning (John 1). His birth was God making Himself manifest to mankind. There were at the least two purposes for that: (1) To sense what we sense, and (2) to understand enough to feel the pain which comes with flesh, and on the behalf of everyone. God did not die, but He experienced death. In order to do so, he required flesh which would interact with the existence that He created! Jews needed that “sign” as well, but failed to “read” the sign. Gentiles in their wisdom saw the sign that Jews failed to see!
God wanted to suffer as His creatures suffered. He wanted to feel our pain! Only God’s Flesh appeared as a man, but he had different characteristics for different purposes; He is Father in some instances, brother in others, groom to us “brides,” tradesman to tradesmen, and Savior to all. My own preference is to think of Jesus as my Father because He IS. As my Father, Jesus preferred to feel my pain that I not have to!
As a father myself, I understand that tremendously. Always, when my children hurt, I wanted to hurt for them. That’s why God took on flesh! He wanted to hurt so that His “children” did not have to. Why is the “Fifth Word” of Jesus, which he wrote with his own finger, by the way, so imperative? Consider it: “Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee” (Exod 20:12). Why is that so important? Reword it just a bit: Honor thy Father and His Holy Ghost; that you may live for eternity in the existence that God had the grace to put you in.
No, the Father is not male and the His Holy Spirit is not female, but the Father IS Creator and the Father IS Nourisher, and in a sense, is that “mother” we are to honor. Rather than thinking of genders, think of roles. In the original Hebrew ‘ab and ‘em (father and mother) are “founder” and “like the father,” respectively. Hebrew words have gender. In the case of God, Father and Mother, would only be used to suggest God as “founder” and “bonder” (Strong’s Dictionary) when interpreted in the broader sense in reference to God.
Why is it imperative to honor our fathers and mothers? Because as fathers or mothers, persons are symbolic of God. Those who fail to honor their parents, dishonor God or God would not have prescribed that! If they are honored, God is honored because honoring parents is vicariously honoring God. God is not here in the flesh at the moment, but we can honor God’s Flesh by honoring our flesh and blood.
It helps me to understand God’s love for me by understanding my parents love for me. Why do I love my parents so much? Because my father and mother, just as God, sacrificed so much of me. Honoring them is the least that I can do to honor those who birthed me, and my divine “Parents” who Created me.
Mom initially sacrificed for me when she birthed me. That is a high sacrifice. Not only is gestation lengthy but uncomfortable, nauseating, and painful. Many times, it is often life-threatening. Mothers are willing to sacrifice their own lives for their children’s existence. That is the love of a mother, and how God loves us so! He did that, not only willing to, but actually did that.
God fathered us when He breathed life into the dust of the ground, then mothered his creatures when he provided all things to nourish His children. (Keep in mind that pronouns and such for God are merely applying gender to words. God is NOT male nor female, but always appeared to mankind as a male in the form of Jesus.)
Mothers love their children so intensely that they would die for them… if they are Christians. Mothers sometimes must exhibit toughlove because children are often hard to love. God’s M.O. was to use toughlove on His Jewish children. He taught them lessons by allowing them to suffer the consequences of their actions. Good children appreciated God’s discipline and loved Him back for His patience. I remember how patient my own mother was; and that she would have died in my place if necessary. I was just not another child, but HER child. Mom loved me because I was part of her, and one of her seven joys! I cry when I remember how sometimes I failed to honor and love my mother as I should have. Even when she switched me, it indeed was for my own good.
My father suffered only pleasure in my conception, but then he was assigned to a life of toil. His “punishment” for his pleasure was the same as Adam’s; he toiled by the sweat of his face. He paid for his moment of pleasure by years of hard work. Gracious God allowed him to rest for a few years before he died. Dad deserved honor when he worked, but especially when he rested, just like God!
When I think of Dad, I think of the man who worked so hard that I would not need to. I did work hard, but not on the scale that Dad had to. I can never ever work as hard for me as my Dad did! Dad is symbolic of my Father in Heaven.
Jesus’s entire life was difficult. It all started with defeating Satan’s temptation. Why did Jesus endure that? Because he wanted to feel what we feel, and the difficulty the flesh causes us. He wanted to sense our pain with the same temptations. Then, Jesus was insulted and persecuted on our behalf. He did what any Christian father would do. I remember Dad hard at work. When I close my eyes, I see two images of Dad: (1) hard at work, and (2) loving hard! When I see Jesus, I see him hard at work on my behalf because he loved me so, that is toughlove indeed.
God never makes mistakes. He made a Plan and stuck with it until it was finished. It was finished when the ultimate act of love was completed - giving His life on our behalf (John 19:30). Dad finished his work when he raised us and delivered us into the safety and nourishment better than what he had. Jesus did the same thing.
Now for my children’s parents: We both made mistakes. I will keep my defense short. My children were my life to the chagrin of their mother. As such, I was always at work, not because I wanted to work, but to provide for my children what I never had as a child. With that, I failed where it was most important – showing the love that I had for them.
Now for their mother: She loved her children to the extent that she endeavored to purchase it. She over-provided. Why would she do that? Because she loved them so much! She actually hand-made clothing for my daughter, not because she was cheap, but thought the work of her hands was more loving than factory-made clothing.
She stood by the boys in all cases; even when they demeaned her or caused her anguish. As two young parents, raising children was hard work, and we often did it wrong. I would argue with their mother that gifting is not the best way of demonstrating love, but she was overly generous anyway. Her generosity was seldom appreciated because she, not coming from a loving family, had no idea how to show love. Even in adulthood, she was generous to her children, even when she was taken for granted.
God’s love comes with one condition; He expects to be loved back. That the mother of my children suffered in agony for their birth is reason enough to honor her! I’m not sure that I could have done that. For my eldest, she was intense labor for 36 hours. Not even Jesus suffered that long for his children on the cross. She was willing to endure that to have the child – to create an existence for him.
I was born into poverty. Although, much less, my children were also, especially my eldest, but not to the extent that I was. Both us parents did without so that he could have; especially his mother! Our lives with the little children were extremely difficult. I have no idea, short of God’s grace, how we made it. We both did it because we loved our children so intensely.
Oftentimes, we over-punished. We did what we thought was best, but never out of anger. Punishment is what children remember! Acts of continuous love never cancel out moments of punishment. Sometimes parents have to do what they know they should do, albeit the process is often wrong or overly painful. The Bible says to “spare the rod, and spoil the child.” To be honest, we spared the rod all too often, and when we used it, used it too harshly. That harsh punishment is what is remembered, and perhaps our children look only at the harshness. Only parents can understand the paradox of love – having to punish out of love. However, that’s what God does as well.
I was a fairly wise child. I figured out that if I honored my father and mother, I could be trusted to do things that otherwise I could not do. I was seldom punished because I loved and honored my parents so much. I still misbehaved, but never rebelled or even sassed. I complied to my parents’ images of me. Dad’s form of punishment was merely saying, “Son, I am disappointed in you.” That hurt to the bone. It changed my behavior because I never wanted to disappoint my Dad out of honor. I’m afraid that in today’s world, that being disappointed in the behavior of children would destroy relationships. It is seldom used as a measure of correction because people don’t like to be corrected. That would mean that they are wrong, and it hurts to be wrong.
We are all sometimes wrong. That’s why God provided the Ten Words; it was for us to correct ourselves to honor our Father. Hidden within that Fifth Commandment is the reward for the willingness to obey any of them: “That thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.” By obedience and honoring, we get the reward! We get a long life as a reward, but if that is extrapolated, it implies eternal life, as Heaven will someday be upon this Earth!
My children are all grown and my days are numbered. However, I love each of them the same that I always have. That’s a divine type of love as well in that Jesus loves us all equally, even those who dismay Him. I can’t even fathom why one child would think he or she is loved less than one of the others. In fact, just as those who God forgives the most, We seem to love the most the one we have forgiven the most, albeit that is not the case. Love is no dependent on behaviors. The father loves the faithful son or daughter as much as the prodigal son, and vice versa.
Words cannot express fatherly or motherly love. Children can’t understand that until they experience it. Love is not an emotion; it is commanded because it is hard work. Sometimes loving parents must do the hard things. Sometimes they must turn their backs on bad behaviors because that is how to emancipate children who think that they are already independent. The old adage, It hurts me more than you, is usually true. It hurts the loving parent to punish because it causes isolation. If children learn when young to accept criticism as beneficial, they would be less angry adults.
The family is a system. If one “cog” is out-of-balance, the entire “gear” will shatter. If we allow God to balance the system, then the family need to never shatter. God’s way is not our way, and sometimes we need to re-align ourselves to God’s idea of balance. Dissension in God’s family is incompatible with God’s Plan, and dissension in the family unit is incompatible with it as well. We all need to change, and change hurts our pride. If we deal with pride, the pain goes away.
Their mother and I are divorced. She is my ex-wife but not my ex-friend, Friends are forever! Sometimes I cry for her. She did things in ways that many consider wrong. However, my tears are because she is dishonored for the few things she did wrongly, but forgotten for all the many things she did rightly. The nature of people is to dwell on the mistakes and forget the successes. There is a solution for that, and it is called empathy.
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| The Parents I Honor |
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