March 2024

Dear Cobham Park Church Family,
Well, it’s official: I’m a Grandpa. Before my grandson’s arrival, I asked friends what being a grandparent was like. One said: “Oh, it’s wonderful! It feels like your heart is exploding.” Another said, “Just wait: when you see that baby, you’ll want to kiss all his skin off!” I was left wondering if being a grandparent felt like something between cardiac arrest and flaying a child alive! What my friends were trying to describe, of course, was the surprisingly powerful affection that grandparents feel for their grandchildren. I now know that grandfatherly love and pride are indeed overwhelming: “Grandchildren are the crown of the aged…(Proverbs 17:6a, ESV).”
But if the love of grandparents is so strong, why didn’t Jesus describe God as a Grandfather instead of our Father? “Pray then like this: ‘Our Father in heaven…(Matthew 6:9a, ESV).’” Now that I think of it, I don’t remember the Bible ever talking about God’s grandchildren; we’re always described as His sons and daughters. Why is this significant?
Immediacy: When I look at my grandson, I can see traces of myself in his face—but his parents’ resemblances are more immediate. I didn’t father my grandchild—my son did. Tammy didn’t carry and give birth to her grandson—his mother did. My son is daily present and personally attentive to his newborn—I just visit. The bonds and proximity that parents share with their children are usually more immediate than those of grandparents and their grandchildren. In the same way, God our Father is closer to us than anyone else (even if we don’t realize it). Far from being a distant, grandfatherly figure, the LORD is directly and intimately involved in our lives. Psalm 139 beautifully describes this immediacy. Our Heavenly Father knows us directly and completely. He created us in His image. And now He has made us Christ’s little brothers and sisters!
Responsibility: For all their love, grandparents usually defer to a child’s parents in parenting matters. Why? It is parents who are legally and morally responsible for their child. Only when a parent cannot—or will not—take responsibility does a grandparent rightfully step into the lead. After all, one of a grandparent’s greatest joys is to keep a grandchild for a while, spoil him, and then return him to his parents for the more unpleasant duties of correction, training, and daily care. In a similar way, God takes direct responsibility for us. In His love, God does what is best for us (not always what we want). He corrects us and daily provides for us. He takes the initiative to save us and raise us in Christ. In return, you and I must freely choose to obey our Father. Nobody else can do that for us.
Permanency: I loved my grandparents and they loved me. But all four of them are with the Lord now. Parents may remain with us longer, but none of us lives in this world forever. Meanwhile, our Father God is permanent! He abides with us through eternity! He will never become a nostalgic memory; He is always an abiding reality! “…behold, I am with you always…(Matthew 28:20, ESV).”
In His Love,
Pastor Keith