When I was a little boy my mom would sometimes sing to me at bed time or if I was sick. Most of the time she sang hymns, and one I distinctly remember is Children of the Heavenly Father. Over time I actually came to resent this song a little bit because “children” felt demeaning and weak. I wanted to outgrow that. I didn’t want to be numbered among the “little children.”
How little I understood what it means to be a child of the Heavenly Father. It is not a thing we grow out of. It is a thing we grow as. We grow in our understanding of the Father’s love. We grow to see our constant need for him. We grow in childlike faith–faith that asks, faith that delights, faith that rests in our Father’s arms. We grow to see who our Heavenly Father is.
One line from Children of the Heavenly Father brings this home with profound power and clarity: “Neither life nor death shall ever From the Lord His children sever.” To be a child of the Heavenly Father is to be held secure and loved perfectly for eternity. It is not temporary. It is not circumstantial. Rather it is defined by these words from Romans 8. “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
I originally wrote this post for my church, Immanuel Nashville, in our Daily Pulse email. If you want encouragement from God’s word delivered Monday thru Friday to your inbox, I encourage you to subscribe.
