We are children of God. Is this declaration of faith attractive to us or repellent to us?
Why are we children of God? As Christians, we believe that in baptism, we participate now in the life of Jesus, God’s only Son. As we share in the life of God’s only Son, we are the adopted sons and daughters of God through Jesus. The author of the letter of John reminds us that our status as children of God is a sign of God’s great love for us. God wills that we share the same relationship with God as God’s only Son Jesus. God wishes us to share in God’s life now, through Jesus, so that one day we will know the fullness of life in God just as Jesus does.
Sometimes we chafe at the notion that we are children of God. If we acknowledge that we are children of God, then we acknowledge that we are dependent on God who is father and mother to us. If we acknowledge that we are children of God, then we acknowledge that we need the counsel, direction, and discipline that an ideal parent offers to help his or her child flourish. We like to assert our adulthood in our relationship with God. We do not want to be dependent on God. We want to be able to choose whether we will accept the counsel, direction and discipline of God. And, in fact, God honors our decision as to how we will relate to God because love can never be coerced. God has to allow us to be free to love God or not. God has to allow us to be free to love God on our own terms. The tragedy is that often we are not as spiritually mature as we like to think and so the ‘adult decisions’ we make with regard to how we will relate to God, and what direction from God we will accept, can often lead us away from the authentic human flourishing that God desires for all of God’s children. As much as we may chafe at being children of God, it is only in accepting our dependence on God and our need for God’s guidance, direction and discipline that we can enjoy the fullness of life that is God’s desire for us.
In this Easter season, we should pray for the grace to appreciate that to be children of God is, indeed, a sign of God’s great love for us!