A broken relationship with a parent is just like the way we treat our creator, says DOMINIC STEELE.
There was an elderly lady who used to live across the road from us, a short way down the street, and she would spend all day sitting on her porch out the front of her terrace, watching the street. As I used to walk home, most afternoons, I would just walk by, smile and say, "Hi". But one Christmas morning, I got up early, and was walking up our street when I saw her sitting on the porch. And you know how it is at Christmas time " everyone is a little more friendly, so I went across the road and started to talk to her, and wished her a Happy Christmas. I asked her what her plans were for the day. She told me that she was spending the day on the porch. Her husband had died years ago, and she had only one child, a daughter. Fifteen years ago, she had a big argument with her daughter, and her daughter's parting words were: "Drop dead, Mum'. Her daughter has never come back, yet the mum said she only lives two suburbs down the road, not more than five kilometres away. She told me she even has grandchildren she has never met. In fact, for that whole 15 years, the daughter has not spoken one word to her mother. And so, my elderly neighbour was spending another Christmas Day alone. It was such a tragic situation.
Most of us would think that the situation was unsatisfactory. Certainly the mother thought it was. But I think if you spoke to the daughter, she might also say that it was unsatisfactory. We are meant for relationship with our parents. We are meant for relationship with God, our father in heaven. As I continued the conversation with my neighbour, it sounded like it had begun as a silly, stubborn fight that had got out of hand. And that is what sometimes happens with God: we start a silly, stubborn fight, and then we think back and wonder, "What was I on about?". But soon enough, we have become entrenched against him.
When we do not have relationship with God, we go looking for alternatives. We worship at the temple of sport, shopping or some other God-substitute.
But Paul says:
"Therefore since we are God's offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone " an image made by man's design and skill' (Acts 17:29).
The point is: if we made it, then it is less than us, and is not worth living for and worshipping. Paul was saying that to worship like that is just not right. We do not reach out for relationship with our father God, even though he is not far from us. Instead we fill our lives with things that are less than us " objects of worship that are interesting, but not too demanding. We choose domesticated gods " entertaining and within our control. We fill our lives with these things rather than with God who is our Creator. We live for sport, fashion, cars, career, recognition, boyfriend or girlfriend, husband or wife, children, pleasure, the garden or even for a kitchen with a new granite bench-top! Have you lived for one of those things? I certainly have. Instead of dealing with the true God, we make up a God-substitute: a tame god who sounds good and makes us feel good.
Unfortunately, we have a problem. Why? Because ultimately God is not like the grandmother on the porch. God loves us, but just the same, he will hold us accountable for the wrong way we have treated him. There is a command from God to turn back to him, and we need to turn back before God holds us accountable. What is your reaction?
Edited extract from Introducing God: Meeting the God who loves us by Dominic Steele with Melinda Chiew (Bible Society, Evangelism Ministries, Christians in the Media, City Bible Forum, 2006). [url=http://www.introducinggod.org]http://www.introducinggod.org[/url]
