Personal Papa

Papa is personal 

“Daddy’s home!” Screams and laughter immediately fills the hallway while 5 kids are running down the stairs, and jumping into Daddy’s arms. “Hey kids, I missed you! Hi precious-Paige, hi princess-Sarah, hi energy-bomb-Tom, hi strong-Stephen and hello butterfly-Bella!” Daddy gives every kid a hug while he calls them by name. “It’s date night tonight!” His voice hasn’t left his mouth fully yet before all the excited voices of the kids join him in a loud cheer.

Every time Daddy would take one of his kids out on a ‘Daddy-date’. What that looked like is different for every one of them. While he spend hours talking with Paige in her favorite coffee shop, he wouldn't dare to take Tom anywhere with four walls. No, energy-bomb-Tom and he would go to a playground and chase each other while gliding off the slides. His daughter Bella loves to be active too, but she rather takes her Dad to her ballet class and show him all the new dance moves she has learned that week. And they would wait until everybody left the dance room after class so Bella and her Dad could dance around the room. They would dance until the music stopped and the lights were turned off and Bella was feeling dizzy because her father swirled her around for so many times. Stephen would often laugh at Bella when she told him what they had done on their Daddy-date, because that didn’t sound fun for him at all. He would much rather play games with his Dad, whether that would be chess or football. Dad would play just good enough to challenge Stephen, but of course he always lets him win. And last but not least, during the Daddy-date with Sarah they would never be just with the two of them. They always are always accompanied by crayons, pencils and paint in all the colors of the rainbow. The hands of Sarah and her Dad would always be filled with paintbrushes, scissors and glue sticks, until the papers on the table would not show any white anymore. And every painting little Sarah finished is shown to Daddy. Daddy would praise her creativity and welcome her new masterpiece with a lot of “Oh”’s and “Ah”’s. Daddy would take her painting and put it on the fridge, where the surface was completely filled with her creative expressions, Daddy’s trophies.

The best fathers are personal fathers, who see the unique identity of every child and speaks his or her own language. Good Dads don’t spend time with energetic boys in the same way he spends time with creative girls. The best Dad of the whole Universe is our Father God, and yet we think that every one of His children needs to spend time with Him in one and the same way. We drown ourselves into seas of words, commentaries, Bible verses and books, while our guitar is begging us to let the sounds be lifted up as a sacrifice of worship. We tie ourselves down to our chairs to have some ‘serious prayer time’, while our feet are restless and can’t wait to take us somewhere beautiful. We lock ourselves in our closet to be able to hear Gods voice and see His face, while the images that keep coming into our mind are not allowed to be released onto the canvas in the corner of the room. Religion taught us well. 

We’ve learned that the only way to succeed as a Christian is when we are at least reading 3 chapters of the Bible, spending hours praying on our knees while a blindfold forces our eyes to remain closed and the only movement accepted is the heart moved in compassion. And then we wonder why the colors of both the interior of our churches and the hairs of our members becomes more and more gray. The (young) people don’t find the freedom to express their unique selves in Christianity anymore, so keep searching for something else.

Do we really think that our Daddy God is going to be mad at us when we instead of saying prayers that we’ve heard from others in Church, express the deepest melodies of our heart in the sounds of a singing voice or vibration of a guitar string? Do we really think that Daddy God is disappointed in us when we’re not able to spend hours in the silence of a prayer chapel, but rather drive around in our car while loud music in blasting out of our speakers, while we hear Him speak through the lyrics? Do we really think that we are less spiritual when we are not digesting 10 chapters of the rules written in Leviticus, but rather take one verse and chew on it over and over again, until we can actually taste the life-changing flavor of love? Do you really think that God is pointing His condemning finger to the mother of three small children, because she is always singing songs of thanksgiving while she’s doing the dishes, but she doesn’t have the time to lock herself in the prayer closet? Who taught us that the Father -who invented fatherhood and intended relationships to be the most perfect reflection of His character- is actually a worse Dad than the ones we see on earth? He created us in the most complicated, unique shape that can only be defined by the word ‘masterpiece’. Do we really think that He made us in that shape, so it would become difficult and painful when we’re pushed through the hole of the status quo, so we can become insecure when we don’t fit into the ‘one size fits all’?

No, our Daddy God is a personal Father. Many rules of Christianity are never given by God Himself, but created by a fearful force called ‘religion’. Father God celebrates our uniqueness and doesn’t only love us, He also likes us! Yes, the only way to  develop a relationship with someone you love is by spending time with that person. Spending time with God and developing a friendship with Him should be our number one priority in our hearts and agendas, because out of that friendship flows every good thing in life. All the desires of our heart – love, acceptance, confidence, revelation of identity, a sense of purpose, safety and restoration – are found in Him. But He is a personal God and we are unique children, so that relationship looks different for everybody else.

For me, that relationship looks like spending a few undisturbed hours every morning with my King. I love being in the prayer chapel for the whole day, just surrounded by silence and peace. My time with God is for 90% just laying down with music in my ears. I talk to Him about everything I’m going through, I listen to what He wants to say, I see things in my mind He wants to show me and I often find myself having deep conversations with Wisdom. I love diving in the Word and seeing the prophetic meaning of old stories or discovering the depths of the words in the verses, but I find it really difficult to read more than two chapters in one time. Does this make me the perfect example of a Christian? No! Does this mean everybody has to spend hours and hours in the ‘secret place’ in order to be ‘holy enough’? No! My calling is knowing Gods heart and translating the message of His heartbeat. The only way I can do that is by taking a lot of time to listen to what He wants to say, without being distracted. This is my way of connecting to God, but it’s not the only way.

Listen to what I’m NOT saying. I’m not saying that we should stop reading our Bibles, we should never pray anymore and let our alone-time with God be completely wiped away from schedules. I really do believe that everybody should have some time in completely silence, eat the bread of the Word and make our request and thanksgiving known to God! But how that looks like… that’s up to you and Daddy God. Don’t confine yourself by rules and restrictions God never intended to exist. Whether your Daddy-date looks like running 8 miles around town (I already get exhausted just by the idea!), or like splashing the rainbow on a canvas, or like sitting in a corner of a coffee shop journaling until you see Gods words interact with your written words: Daddy enjoys it when you are enjoying your time with Him! He’s too great to be put in a box and great enough to let Himself be caught by your uniqueness.

And even though our quality time with our Father is so important, if that one one-on-One meeting is the only moment we’re being around Him, we’re not developing close friendship, but a long distance relationship. Imagine how close you would be to your father if you would only see him once a week on your ‘daddy-date’, while the rest of the days you won’t even say hi to him. God is not only a Father of the Daddy-dates, but also a Father who longs to walk with us in daily life. In that way He can catch us when we’re falling, laugh with us when we’re having fun, speak through the mouths of people around us and constantly show His love in a thousand little gifts all through the day. How walking with the Father looks like is different for everybody again. Isn’t it a beautiful adventure that we can discover our own, personal way of connecting to the Creator of the Universe on the most unique way?

Let the Church shine in beautiful diversity again, so she becomes attractive to all the ones who don’t want to be contained by the walls of religion. 

©ElineMillenaar