WHO'S YOUR DADDY?

By Marcia K. Emerson, (Redding)

“Who's your daddy?” is a slang expression that, in one use, takes the form of a rhetorical question. It is commonly used as a boastful claim of dominance over the intended listener. It is also sometimes used as a derogatory claim of sexual dominance of a man over a woman or another man.

For Christians this phrase should have a whole different meaning. When we acknowledge God as our father, our daddy, we do it with thankfulness, with humility that we are even allowed to use that name with Him. As lowly humans, to be able to use that intimate term for this powerful being is an awesome privilege. God the Father yearns for us to view him as our daddy, the one who made us and nurtures us as we walk through this life.

In Jeremiah 3:19 (NLT) God says to us, “...I would love to treat you as my own children!...I looked forward to your calling me 'Father.'”

Many of us either don't even know who our physical father is or never had the type of relationship with them that we so longed for and needed. But we can all turn to our spiritual father to fill that role and provide just what we need and want. And he can do it in a manner and magnitude no birth father ever could.

My parents divorced when I was 8-years old and my father played a very limited role in my life. I didn't get what a little girl needs from her daddy to feel unconditional love, a sense of belonging, of security. But as I have come to know God as my Father, the hurts and voids in my life are being healed and filled. He is making up for what I missed from my birth father and so much more.

In Romans 8:15-16 (NLT) we are told “..Instead you received God's spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call Him , 'Abba, Father.' For his spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God's children.”

If anyone ever asks you, “who's your daddy?”, you don't need to feel threatened or inferior. You know who your daddy is, the most powerful being in existence who is there to protect and support and guide you every moment of your life.