Advent Day 19 – The Everlasting Father

I write this on the heels of an exhausting conversation. The individual I met with is not a believer but is searching… and angry with her father. Disappointed perhaps. This father failed his children, his family. Sadly, it is the wreckage of that broken relationship that is keeping this individual from true and trusting faith. She is one of many I have spoken with over the years.

But it serves as a real though painful, backdrop of this aspect of the prophecy of Isaiah concerning Christ’s coming. We have already considered that this child born of a virgin was to be “a wonderful counselor,” or king. And that He would be “the mighty God,” or God come in human flesh, both fully God and fully human.

The third element of the prophecy, written some 800 years before Christ was born, was that this coming One would be called “everlasting Father.” There are far too many dimensions of this to explore in this brief devotion. Let’s leave it at this: Jesus would come and fill that void that so many people feel for a father.

It’s interesting how many contemporary movies (since the 1960’s) have at the center of their plot piece a child’s search for reconciliation with their father. The most emotional point of many of those movies is the moment the child and father reconnect, or even connect for the first time.

This pressing human need is evident in many ways today, and certainly their stories flood many counseling offices. We need a father.  A father who loves us, and who is proud we are his child. When we don’t know these things, our lives set off on many destructive tangents.

God was coming in Jesus Christ to take His rightful seat not only as King, not only as God with us, but as the Father so many of us need. He is the Father Who loves us unconditionally, Who is proud of us just because He created us, and Who will never leave us nor forsake us. (see Hebrews 13:5-6)

The everlasting Father… the Father Who never fails. The Father Who never forsakes. The Father Who always loves, no matter our failures and faults.

And if you don’t have a father, you can have one today: Just trust Jesus. He is ready to receive you, and never let you go.

He is the Father this world needs, and cries for every day.