I was working in my yard, and I hear this heartbreaking sound from two doors down. Loud enough and alarming enough to stop what I was doing and head that way. A towheaded three-year-old boy was standing at the top of the steps outside the door to his house. He’d gotten separated from his father and left outside. Upset, he was looking in the glass through the door. He was desperately trying to see the only person in the world who mattered to him in that moment. Yelling, crying really, just one word. “Daddy, daddy, daddy!” Over and over. In that raw, bereft, drawn-out way only little children can.
About the time I walked (ran) over, the little one’s father stepped out. I looked on as he took the boy in his arms and comforted him. No harm done, just a few tears. As a father of sons long since grown, muscle memory in my own heart and arms felt the father’s compassion.
I was relieved, but that sound rang in my ears. That one-word cry got to me. Preschoolers aren’t articulate. They don’t have much in the way of vocabulary. He wasn’t saying much with his words to explain or express. “Daddy!” said it all.
It’s that “Daddy!” cry Jesus invoked when he referred to His father as “Abba” in his language in his time. “Abba” is almost a babble: a number of languages form a similar sound into names for fathers. It’s the sound that little ones- in their earliest days of speaking- use to call to their fathers. A tender, intimate, childish call. Anyone within the sound of his voice who had kids (or had been a kid) felt in their bones what Jesus meant when He called God “Daddy”.
To Jesus, God wasn’t distant, or stern, or high above, or uncaring, or harsh, or judgmental, or uninterested. When Jesus prayed, and taught His followers to pray, “Our Father…”, you can hear the intimate, personal, close connection, the expectation of love, generosity, and comfort that parents share with their children.
When we pray now, beginning with the same timeless words, “Our Father…”, we feel the same love, generosity, and comfort from God. It’s the essence of grace.