"Papa"


Gal 4:5  Thus we have been set free to experience our rightful heritage. 
Gal 4:6  You can tell for sure that you are now fully adopted as his own children                    
     because God sent the Spirit of his Son into our lives crying out, "Papa! Father!" 

Walking in the freedom that is ours in Christ goes along with a revelation of the 
relationship we have with the Father. With the presence of the Spirit in our hearts is the 
identifying and confirming affirmation that His Father is our Father- we are one in family 
and one in Spirit. In knowing Him, there is knowing who we are by the Spirit. 

All the new faces and smells and sounds.- Though her entrance to the world had 
been just a few days ago, there was still a strangeness about this new place and these 
people who just kept pinching and kissing and holding. It was enjoyable, but so different 
from her life experience that had begun a few months ago in the womb. There had been 
very little comforting sounds or feelings, and even upon birth, there had been no 
celebration as she was delivered. She had been in such an abandoned atmosphere that her 
little heart had already begun to sense that being alone was the norm. So now, with this 
commotion going on, there was all the wonder and amazement that her little life could 
know, and though it was so wonderful, she still did not totally receive and return it 
herself. It was like she was just observing this unusual behavior by all these strangers and 
not fully realizing that it was all for her. 
Though the people surrounding her on that day really did love her and fully 
intended to provide her with everything that her life would require, it would be many, 
many days and even into months before she would really begin to identify with and bond 
to this family that had adopted her as one of their own. With their faithful tending to her 
every need, however, she would begin to expect, anticipate and look forward to being 
fed, bathed, played with, and read to. She had taken their name, and she would take on 
their other identifying characteristics. As she would begin to speak, some of her first 
words would be "Papa" and "Mama". She would learn to not only receive all that they 
lovingly gave her, but give love in return from a heart that had been transformed. She 
would never again be without the encouragement and comfort of those that had embraced 
not only her precious body, but the tiny heart within. 
Like this child adopted into a family quite different from the one that had 
conceived and born her, those that have been born again into the family of God have been 
adopted into a caring and loving environment that is so completely different from the 
prior way of life. Though there is a rejoicing party that takes place in heaven at the 
moment of this adoption, there is a period of time in which this new life is fully realized 
and the old ways are completely replaced by the new. As this time passes, every moment 
that includes an intense awareness of the Redeemer's presence is progress made towards 
full bonding and identification with Him. In fact it is only those moments with Him that 
take one from the old life to the new. His Spirit then occupies the heart in transforming 
power and causes it to develop a "Papa" relationship with this incredible being of loving 
care. No longer is this group of people and way of living observed with a strangeness and 
distance. There is full identification with them as the adopted heart begins to accurately 
exemplify "Papa" and His will. When this transformation is completed, there is no longer 
a conscious effort to try and "be" something. How we need to live and our perception of 
life itself is forever tied to the loving relationship that is more real and near than anything 
in that old, isolated way. In every circumstance and in every challenge, there is this 
immediate and unforced response of, "Papa". "...Old things are passed away; behold, all 
things are become new." 2Cor. 5:17



9/6/05