Abba, Father

Quite often in the Bible, God is described as our father. Perhaps the most well known instance is in the Lord's Prayer. (Our Father who art in heaven...).

Abba is the Hebrew word that gets translated to father. However, to a lot of people this suggests a stern old bloke with a stick. In reality, the word is much closer to our word 'Daddy'.

I know not everyone's been as lucky as me to have a great dad, and some people struggle with this. Up until a few years ago, my dad was always indestructible, and I called him 'Daddy'. But when you get a bit older, you start to realise that your dad isn't really quite so indestructible and perfect, no matter how great he may be. He's just human. And you start to call him 'Dad' (unless you want something).

It's interesting that 'Daddy' is the word I'm more likely to use if I want to borrow money or go out or anything like that. And 'Daddy' is often what young children say.

In the Bible, Jesus says that unless you have faith like little children, you won't enter the kingdom. So I think it's important that instead of thinking of God as 'Father', we start to think of him more as 'Daddy'--there to meet all our needs, keep us safe, and offer his unconditional love.

And remember: God made you special and he loves you very much.