The concept of God as our divine parent has been on my mind lately. Today I enjoyed a special walk in my neighbourhood while waiting for my freshly washed clothes to dry in a dryer at the laundromat. (It is winter in Melbourne, you see.)
As I walked, two trains of thought from the past few days came together – God as our Father and Jerusalem as our mother. (I will explain.) I thought about God, our divine parent, disciplining us in love and singing over us with delight as we form part of his special city.
Yes, that last paragraph is as dense with content as a fruitcake is dense with fruit. Let me elaborate.
God as our Father
In my Tibetan lesson on Thursday, my teacher helped me learn a new (to me) Christian song. The lyrics are the words of ‘The Lord’s Prayer’, the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples. They have been put to a hauntingly beautiful Tibetan melody. In it, God is called our ཡབ (yab) which is an honourable way of saying ‘Father’.
In Tibetan, the lyrics start out with ནམ་མཁར་བཞུགས་པའི་ངེད་ཀྱི་ཡབ། ། . This means, literally, ‘Our Father who lives in the sky’. My teacher didn’t like the use of the་first word, ནམ, meaning ‘sky’. He thought that a different word should have been used – a word which means, literally, ‘the place where gods dwell’. I am glad, though, that the Tibetan song uses the word for ‘sky’. Although God is far from us in terms of perfection and purity, he doesn’t live in a far off place. No, his kingdom is near us and around us, just like the sky.
This is the song I’ve been listening to over and over recently. Look it up on the internet – you can find it on YouTube. Search for ‘Lord’s Prayer’ and ‘Tibetan Christian worship song’.
Jerusalem as our Mother
I have also been thinking about Jerusalem as our mother this weekend. Why? That is a random concept, you may say.
I enjoy listening to an online Ignation devotion most days. This weekend, the passage for contemplation was Isaiah 66:10-14. In it, Jerusalem is described as our mother. The imagery is graphic. We read of God’s people feeding and being satisfied at Jerusalem’s “comforting breasts”. Indeed, God’s people will “drink freely and delight in her overflowing abundance” (Isaiah 66:11). Isaiah goes on to say that God will comfort us “as a mother comforts her child” (Isaiah 66:13a).
Jerusalem as our mother? I find it a bit of a weird concept but it’s Biblical.
A Contemplative Walk
As I waited for my clothes to dry, I went for a half hour contemplative walk. I asked God, “Is there anything you would show me?” Then I tried, as best I could, to just still my mind and focus on him as I strolled through the path, past the supermarket, through another park and back again.
Was it God, or was it me? This passage from Zephaniah 3:16-17 sprang to mind:
“On that day they will say to Jerusalem…. ‘The LORD your God is with you..… He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.’”
The Holy Spirit seemed to be pulling together the threads of my contemplations over these past few days. Our Father in heaven is with us. He’s not far off in a land in which spiritual beings dwell. No, he is right here, right now, above us and all about us. And he delights in Jerusalem – our mother – the one from whom we draw nourishment, comfort and identity.
But it hasn’t always been this way. First was a time of rebuking…..
Rebuked
God will no longer rebuke Jerusalem, says Zephaniah (Zephaniah 3:17). Jerusalem had been rebuked before this, though. That doesn’t mean that God didn’t care about her. Quite the opposite, in fact. Scripture says:
“My son, do not reject the discipline of the LORD,
and do not loathe His rebuke;
for the LORD disciplines the one He loves,
as does a father the son in whom he delights”
(Proverbs 3:11-12 and quoted in Hebrews 12:6)
It’s like the father and daughter duo I sat near in a cafe earlier today. The waitress brought the man’s coffee along with a complimentary chocolate. (I was enjoying the same.) His little girl immediately grabbed the chocolate off her father’s saucer. The man, however, firmly took it back.
“You mustn’t do that. I don’t like greedy little girls.”
My heart broke for the little girl. Her daddy didn’t like her? The child, however, didn’t seem perturbed. Perhaps her focus was on the chocolate? Or maybe she was confident in her identity as the dearly loved daughter of this man.
“Please, Daddy, may I have your chocolate?”
“That’s better, sweetie. But no. It’s not good for you to have so much sugar. Our lunches will come soon and you will have some healthy food. After that, well, then we’ll see.”
I still don’t like the way the father told his daughter that he didn’t like greedy little girls. But there is no question that his rebuke was given in love. He wanted her to be healthy and whole.
That’s how God treats us too.
Rejoicing with Singing
I often use music to energise me, motivate me, calm me down or to worship. In this passage, however, God does the singing. God – our Father in Heaven – our Father in the sky – looks down on us imperfect, broken people, and rejoices over us with singing!
Okay – I’m taking quite a leap here, assuming that it is us that he is singing over even though the passage is talking about Jerusalem. And besides, as I contemplate this complex concept, I am walking in Mooroolbark, Melbourne – a l-o-n-g way from Jerusalem. But Scripture suggests that Christians belong to ‘the heavenly Jerusalem’, and as such, God rejoices over us!
In the same chapter as the writer to the Hebrews quoted the proverb about God disciplining those he loves, he also wrote, “But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem” (Hebrews 12:22a). He said a lot more besides which will be wonderful to meditate on another time.
Jerusalem is our mother. Jerusalem is the city of the living God. The heavenly Jerusalem is where I belong. It’s one of those ‘now and not yet’ truths. My clothes are very much in a solid metallic dryer in the outer east of Melbourne even as I contemplate this truth. But I belong to God’s city.
So what?
If we are dearly loved children of our father in heaven, we will want to live in such a way that he responds with delight rather than rebuke. We don’t live well in order to win his approval. We live well because we are his.
There are times when we still need the firm hand of a parent. Just as the precocious little chocoholic in the cafe today needed pulling into line precisely because she is her father’s precious girl, so God nurtures us.
He not only rebukes us in love, but he also rejoices over us with singing.
As I gaze up at the wintry sky, I imagine that I can almost hear his singing. One day, we will experience it in full. These promises are like the buds that protrude from the winter trees I pass on the street near the laundromat. They’re already real and alive, and full of anticipation of so much more to come.
My identity is as a dearly loved daughter of God. I collect the washing basket from my parked car and walk in to the laundromat retrieve my clothes. I wonder about the others who wait for their clothes to dry. What of the Caucasian lady engrossed in watching a football game on an iPad? What of the Asian couple with a very tall basket of laundry? Have they heard the good news of a heavenly Father who longs for them to be reconciled to him?
There is still room in the heavenly Jerusalem for plenty more residents.
