Who’s Your Daddy?
Who’s Your Daddy?
God gave us this world to reveal who He is – and He is our Provider and Protector. Yes, Protector. He made Adam and Eve safe and secure in the Garden of Eden. It was their grab for the forbidden fruit that invited sin into the world – and with it pain and peril, sickness and death.
The Bible calls Satan the tempter (Matthew 4:3; 1 Thessalonians 3:5). He lured our first parents into sin and he lies in wait for us and our children as well. And he is not content with physical death. The trophy he prizes is our immortal soul.
The devil would trick us into betraying God and giving up life in the glory of His presence forever. In the Bible, “death” is sometimes a stopped heartbeat and a stilled brain; elsewhere it is separation from God, the Giver of life. Both dangers are real. We must simply see them both for what they are.
The parent who takes the eternal view of what is best for her children will also make a distinction between fleeting treasures and lasting ones. Those first treasures are usually the pleasures of this world. Some of them are good and wholesome. God gave the creation to man for his enjoyment.
We should put it to that purpose while keeping the end-game (as it seems to us) in view. If we refuse to acknowledge the Creator as we consume the delights of His creation we will run astray. Our Lord Christ instructs us in the Sermon on the Mount:
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:19-21).
The good news for fallen humanity is that the God who is our Creator is also our Redeemer. When we call upon the name of our Lord Jesus for salvation, He cleanses us of the sin that keeps up from the Father’s presence. God is restoring His world to its original pristine state – but better. As the last Adam, our Lord Jesus, is better than the first, so will God’s world in the end be better than at the beginning.
The Garden of Eden was magnificent; the New Jerusalem will be better. We will spend eternity there in the presence of our Lord, who is our Creator and Redeemer. He promises that when we arrive in His heavenly city He will wipe every tear away.
All He asks of us is that we place our trust in Him – in the saving work He has done on the cross.
We must keep our precious children out of harm’s way in this life as much as we are able. But as we do, let us not lose sight of that eternal home. Only there will they dwell in perfect security, and they will enjoy it forever. They need our Lord’s church on earth today to prepare them to spend eternity in His kingdom that has no end.
St. John reports on the New Jerusalem he saw in his vision:
“But I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light. And the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it” (Revelation 21:22-24).
Only there will we know true safety and everlasting peace.Ω