God Views June 1999

by Dawn Sandquist

“…But go and find My brothers and tell them that I am ascending to My Father and your Father, My God and your God.” John 21:17 (NLBT)

It’s interesting to me that Jesus gave this commission to a woman, Mary Magdalene. However, she wasn’t just any woman – she was a faithful woman! This woman proved her love over and over by serving Jesus (see Luke 8:2), by ‘being there’ in dangerous situations when other fled, (see John 19:25), and then finding Him in the garden after His death.. Mary thought His body had been stolen and she was heartsick. Mary was more concerned about Him than about herself.

As a result of all of the above, God rewarded her faithfulness with this fascinating revelation: the God of heaven, Yahweh of old, Adonai was now their Father. They could say “Father” and not just THE Father but MY Father. What a revelation! What a reality! And she was the one to declare it! When she sees the disciples she says, “I have seen the Lord!” Yes, she had and she probably didn’t fully grasp the significance of her message. Not only had she seen Jesus but now she, along with all the others who followed Him, would be able to see God the Father as their God and Father.

As He did with Mary, He now invites all of us to know Him as Father. He asks His Son to search into the eyes of our hearts and give us revelation of His Fatherhood. He instructs Jesus to lead us down the corridors into the throne room to introduce us to Him as our Father.

I will never forget that winter’s day in November of 1983 when Jesus came to me in my morning Bible reading and introduced me to my Father. The eyes of my understanding were illuminated and I saw my Daddy for the first time. I had known the Father but it was time to know my Father. It’s a day I will never forget. I cried for joy for weeks afterward because I obviously had ‘Father glasses’ on now and any scriptures or songs or hymns that spoke about Father “jumped-out-at-me” regularly. I saw all of life through Father. I remembered a song from my Sunday School days that I always loved to sing – “This is my Father’s world, I rest me in the thought.” However, now it was more than a thought, it was a reality that kept unfolding as the years progressed.

As we celebrate Father’s Day and our earthly fathers remember that God has made a way for us to see and know our heavenly Father from whom all fatherhood and families originate. He is our Everlasting Father. If you had a horrible earthly father God can and will heal you by showing you His good Fatherhood. He can heal memories and restore a new vision of your true and beautiful Daddy. Even if you had the best earthly father He is still infinitely greater than the best and highest a human father can be. Let Him show you what genuine goodness in a father looks like. You’ll get a wonderful God View of what true Fatherhood is all about!