There's something about God. He is many things to many people--to some, a kindly old grandfatherly-type figure, who perhaps winks at those "little" sins and says "Ah well, kids will be kids", or something to that effect. To others, a capricious taskmaster, a micro-manager, who puts His heavenly nose into everything, cracking the whip and striking with lightning whenever the whim takes Him. Others seem to believe He is something of a genie; a cosmic Santa Clause, if you will, who will give them what they want if they jump through all the right hoops, and say all the right prayers. To yet others He is non-existent; and believe it or not, some even say that God is the evil one, and poor Satan is the good guy. Then there are those to whom, like me, He is not only the Maker and Master of the universe, but a Father--omnipresent (all-present), omniscient (all-knowing), and omnipotent (all-powerful), yes--but a Father, just the same.

One thing is for certain: He's God, and we're not.

But a father, as well? How can this be? How could an all-powerful, all-present, all-knowing Being, a force so awesome and powerful that it could create everything from the tiniest atom to the greatest galaxy, and everything in between, be a father figure, of all things?

In a word--Jesus. Ah, now there's the rub, eh? Just the very Name of Jesus sends many people into fits--unless perhaps, you happen to be saying something politically correct and comforting, such as "Jesus said, 'Judge not, lest you be judged' ". Most people love that stuff, but otherwise, many tend to get huffy when you talk about Him. Why? And what does He have to do with all this God-as-Father stuff, anyway? There is no way this can all be explained in one post, but I'll try to give you the Reader's Digest version. Just remember, the best explanation is probably sitting on a shelf somewhere in your house, gathering dust; or if not, is still readily available in libraries and bookstores. It's called the Bible. But, like the former me, most people would rather just read a blog, or an email, so here goes.

First, one of many answers I could give as to why Jesus is so offensive: "If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world,because of this the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, 'A slave is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also. But these things they will do to you for My name's sake, because they do not know the One who sent Me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. He who hates Me hates My Father also. If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well. But they have done this to fulfill the word that is written their Law, 'They hated Me without a cause' ." (John 15:18-25). Jesus was the only person in history to have never done anything wrong, and yet He was wronged more than anyone in history when they nailed Him to a cross. He did nothing but good when He was here on earth, so they had no good reason to hate Him. Yet they did, and not only the people of two millenia ago, but down through history to the present. You see, Jesus didn't only raise the dead, make the blind see, and heal the sick--He offended. He was, and is, offensive to people because He convicts them of their sin, and doesn't let them off the hook with a wink--and this is not exactly a fun situation for us to be in.

And what of the God-the-Father stuff? Well, here's where we get into the Trinity. Don't panic--it's not that tough! St. Patrick used the shamrock in Ireland to explain the Trinity; a very handy model, I think. A shamrock has three leaves, right? But just because it has three leaves doesn't make it three shamrocks, does it? Of course not. So what if we plucked off one leaf? Would it still be a shamrock? Of course it would. Or take an egg. The egg has a shell, a yolk, and a white. If you break the shell and put the rest in a pan and cook it, wouldn't you say you've cooked an egg? Just because the egg has these three distinct parts, doesn't mean it isn't one egg. The Trinity is much the same, in that it is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit--or, God. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit--three separate entities in One. Not that God the Father one day decided He wanted to create a baby God, and this is the Son. Jesus always existed with the Father and the Holy Spirit. We call Him the Son because, literally, God left His awesome place and came to earth, born to a virgin in the form of a helpless baby. This was God the Son--not half God, half man, but both fully God and fully man.

The next obvious question would be "Why would God do this? If you were some amazingly powerful deity, would you want to give that up and come to earth; to be born in a filthy, smelly stable, raised by peasants in some backwater, and in about the most primitive, backward time in history?" The answer is, of course I wouldn't. And neither would you. We simply don't have that capacity for selfless love. But He did, and He does. That's right--love. Mankind was created to have a sinless, perfect relationship with his Creator, but he blew it. Big time. Since then, God has been calling us back, loving us so much He would do anything to reconcile us to Him. But we couldn't do this by simply "being good". From the beginning, "....the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." ( Romans 6:23). People couldn't earn their way to heaven then, nor can we now. From the beginning there has always been a penalty for sin, and God being not only a just God, but a Holy and Perfect God, is hardly about to break His own rules. What kind of God would He be then? "Okay, well, if you'll promise to just do the best you can, I'll let you, with all your contagious dirt and stains, into My absolutely perfect-beyond-your-ability-to-imagine Heaven." It would be like the director of a hospital, upon learning of a miraculous new way to totally cleanse the O.R. to where there isn't even one germ; and do the same to every surgeon and nurse entering by simply walking through a sort of "de-contamination archway", letting them in to operate as long as they "wash really well". Now, God being God, He could have simply zapped fallen mankind in such a way as to make them love Him, make them perfect again--but then that would be taking away free will, and who wants that? So, this was like one of those nasty jobs that you've decided must be done, and the only way is to do it yourself. Enter God in human form....a.k.a. Jesus. He lived among us, as one of us. He experienced hardship, He grew up poor, He had a mom and dad, brothers and sisters, just like us. He was tempted in all things, just like us. Unlike us, He lived a perfect, sinless life. Who else but God could do such a thing? Who else but God could have performed the miracles He did, and have the strength, the will, the love, the amazing grace, to not defend Himself in an illegal, kangaroo court, suffer having the flesh literally ripped off of him down to the bone, be nailed to a cross, ask the Father to forgive them--even the very ones who drove the spikes into Him--hang there all day in the desert heat, and finally take on all our sins, past, present, and future, paying the penalty for all of us, and die? Only to rise again in three days? "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16).

You may be saying, "Now, wait a minute. First, you quote that the wages of sin is death. Now you quote that if we believe in Jesus, we won't die. But people still die. What are you talking about?" I'm talking about eternal life. Actually, God made us with eternal souls--we will exist eternally somewhere. The question is, where? Well, Jesus, by taking the rap for us, paved the way for us to spend eternity in heaven. We are not righteous and holy on our own, nor can we be, but He is righteous and holy, and when we sincerely believe that He is God in the Person of the Son, who came to earth to take the rap for us, died and rose again in order to save us from ourselves--that this is the free gift He offers each and every one of us, and we accept that gift and ask Him to forgive us and be our Lord and Savior--then, and only then, will God come to live in us, to be a part of us, in the Person of the Holy Spirit. And from that point on we become clothed with the righteousness of Christ. From that point on, when God looks at us, He sees the righteousness of Christ. From that point on, because of Him, not because of anything "good" we might do, we are considered by God to be clean enough to enter that "O.R." I spoke about. On the other hand, if we choose to go on our merry way without Him.....well, our way won't be so merry if we're spending it apart from Him for eternity. Imagine that. Eternity. Where there is no past, present, or future. There is no such thing as time. It just....is. Forever. I, for one, much prefer to spend eternity in the unimaginably awesome presence of God--and seeing loved ones who have gone before will be a nice little bonus, as well. But you know, that isn't even the main reason I've made the choice I have, as compelling a reason as that is! See, if I had it to do over again, I'd make the same choice, even if God personally told me that there is no such thing as eternal life--that, living here on earth with Him in my life is all fine and dandy, but once I'm dead, I'm totally and irrevocably dead. Why? Because I've lived both with and without Jesus in my life, and have found that life with Him is so much different--different as in better, but more--I can't really explain it--than life without Him.

But more on that later.