You think you have the only messed-up family? Does it feel like mockery to hear preachers and teachers talking about God being “like our father”? Often there is no comfort in comparing God to our earthly fathers. Most soldiers who pass through my office have few memories of their fathers, and the ones they do have are haunting.

Whatever your family circumstances, there are evidences of brokenness. This matters! Sigmund Freud argued that we invent a heavenly father as adults because we need the security our earthly fathers provided when we were children. He was right in that the two are linked. But God is not a projection of our fathers; our fathers (and mothers) are a projection of God! They shape our view of Him.

How have your parents shaped your view of God? How have your friend’s parents shaped his/her view of God? Christ has made us children of the living God. Even the brokenness points to the loveliness of this fact. Our parents fail, and so do we. But the love of God for us through Jesus Christ never fails.