Daddy's Girl

I love and cherish the relationship I have with my earthly dad. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that he loves me and that he will do anything to protect me. I know that he is proud of me and I embrace the fact that I am and will forever be his little girl. I often think that there cannot be another great father like mine and I am positive there are none greater. I think our relationship helps me to better understand my relationship with God and how it ought to be, how it could be; it helps me to see how great my Heavenly Father’s love for me must be, especially when I consider that it is even more intense than the love of my dad. When I think of my relationship with God as one of a Father-Daughter, then, it brings tears to my eyes, realizing what that means about my Heavenly Father. I bask in the idea that He, too, has love-names for me, will/can protect me at all costs, is proud of me as a daughter… I can’t even express how much that means to me. I am a Daddy’s girl and I never want to leave their loving arms, but I want to be held by them, knowing they will never let go.

I truly value this relationship with God in which I look up to Him and treasure Him as my Daddy. But I’ve been thinking, lately, that maybe our relationship is supposed to be even more than this. See, in a father-daughter relationship, most of the responsibility is placed on the Father – to protect, hold, guide, and treasure his daughter just as she is. But maybe that’s just one aspect of the whole picture. I’ve been thinking that if my purpose for living is to glorify God with everything that I am, maybe all the responsibility does not rest on Him alone. I think I have responsibility too – to love Him back and, through that intimate love, to obey, point-to, admire, worship, and submit to Him. Although God is, indeed, my Father and He loves me like a daughter, perhaps our relationship is meant to be one based on giving love – as a bride to a groom. Our love is to be so intense that we cannot help but to rest our thoughts on Him all day long and to act in glorification of His name forever.

Right now, I think that I’m really enjoying the Father-daughter stage of this relationship and knowing that my Heavenly Daddy is delighted by/with me. But maybe I’m too comfortable. I think He’s calling me to love Him as a lover, even more than a daughter. I am to fall in love with Him and to give Him my heart, my soul, my mind, my body. He wants it all and, as far as I’m concerned, He deserves it. I just don’t know how to change and I know I’m afraid to.

“Prone to wander Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love
Here's my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above.”

Jesus, my Heavenly Father, intimacy with you is what I need. Help me; help me want it. Help me to know how to pursue this relationship with you and give me the courage to do what needs to be done.