Imagine you are the wealthiest man in town- a royalty; and that everyone respects you so much that they consider you an icon. Everything that you do is honored and it’s an honor for the commoner to be called by your household name. People imagine what it is like to be not part of your family but to be a guest in your house. Many dream to be noticed by you and if someone is fortunate enough, to talk to you. Kids are taught about you as a fairy tale story. You are that amazing- a superhero. Then you have a son. And your son grew older and the talk of the town becomes how this graceful wealthy honorable man is so lucky that now he also has a successor but then something happened. That son started to hang out with some friends with a bad reputation. And He slowly became a drunkard, a liar, a thief and eventually becomes an addict without you knowing that. Then one day your son was found passed out around the garbage dump. The town residents were afraid to tell you what happened. Finally, you heard about the disgraceful news about your son. How would YOU feel? Not how he should feel, but how would YOU feel? What would you think when you see two people whispering on the side of the road? What would you feel when people are having a hard time to tell you about the failure of your child? How would you honestly feel after all that you have done for your kid?
Let’s now turn our attention our heavenly Father. After He bestowed upon us the privilege of being called His sons and daughters. After He gave us a heavenly home. After we are honored to be created in His image, (not even the angels were created in His image, but us) we end up favoring the counsel of the devil and disobeying God’s love and rejecting Him to live a disgraceful life. How do you think our Heavenly Father feel? I would argue that what you would answer and what God Himself says biblically is quite different. In Hebrews, St. Paul states that He (God) is not ashamed to be called their (our) God. (Heb 11:16) and He also says that Christ is not ashamed to call them (apostles/us) ‘brothers’ (Heb 2:11)
God is not ashamed to be called our Father so why do we feel ashamed to return back to Him. Yes, we might feel embarrassed after committing a sin and when we come back to our senses. But that doesn’t mean that God is ashamed to call us His children. Christ was also called friend of scribes and sinners in Luke 7:33. His son is always His son and His daughter is always His daughter. He would forgive us, accept us, love us, and delight in us for the sake of His name and NOT because of our unrighteous deed. Yes, we should feel remorse of what we have done but not to the point of a despair that says, “we are not accepted when we make the attempt to return to Him.” The problem is that we count how God view us as an earthly relationship. If we have wronged someone, that person will be bitter at us, resent us or inquire some kind of revenge even as little as afflicting words towards us. But God is not like that. He is the prodigal son’s Father who accepted the son without any hesitation (Luke 15). He wasn’t ashamed by what others might say by accepting His imperfect child. This should encourage us to repent and come back to our Father rather flee from Him because we are ashamed in ourselves.
Secondly, if we are accepted in such a way and if He is not ashamed of us even after we disobey Him and neglect His commandments, we should in turn strive to not be ashamed calling ourselves His sons and daughters. Today, it is very hard to boldly profess that we are Christians whether it may be because of our ungodly actions telling ourselves “what would so and so say if they knew that I am a church goer?” Or maybe it’s because of a fear of tarnishing our reputation in various places if we are not “neutral” or “tolerant” on a specific topic. However, ask yourself, does tolerance mean ashamed of testifying our belief? Then how can we at least participate in the blessing of martyrs who were mocked and insulted for the sake of defending their faith and for the sake of not being ashamed to be called Christ’s followers? If He is not ashamed to call me His son or daughter, should I be ashamed of calling Him Father? Not in words only, but in action?
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