The Validation of the Father

In these days where gender questions are all around and some people claim that gender is only a construct itself the discussion does not even stop when it comes to the part of the biblical trinity that is God the Father. Some feminists just change the biblical text into Mother God. But beside this rather questionable changing of the original text, they are missing out an important point: Calling God father is not about a power struggle between genders who has the right to attach his or her gender to God. It is about certain attributes that are attached to a father figure and that resemble God’s character. This cannot be expressed by calling God a mother since a mother has different attributes. Generally speaking, each child has a much closer emotional relationship to his or her mother than to his or her father: When a child falls down and hurts a knee it comes running to the mother for a band aid and emotional help – not the father. Mothers are the primary care giver for children. That does not mean that a father does not have a function in raising children. His function is different, of course, but nevertheless important. The function of the father is to validate the children, to confirm their identity, to give them a feeling of belonging. And this is exactly what God the Father stands for: When we are His children, that is when we believe in Him, He validates our design, our calling, our whole being as humans here on earth. By validating us, He gives meaning to our lives and an eternal destiny. God has expressed such a validation in a very beautiful way through the prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 49:16), “I have engraved you on the palms of my hands.” Being written on the palms of His hands means that I am part of Him, He knows me by name, I belong to Him. What can be more validating, more empowering than the fact that the Creator of the universe not only knows my name but acknowledges us as sons and daughters, as part of Him? This is the validation of God the Father.