Heavenly Grandfather?

I like how this hymn describes God:

I’ve found a friend, oh such a friend:
So kind and true and tender,
So wise a counselor and guide,
So mighty a Defender…

I shared this with a friend. She looked at me and said, “That same God allowed and watched Stephen being stoned.”

No worries, I forgave her and we’re still friends.

I’ll be the bold one to say: some versions of God are uncomfortable to me. I’m trying to be cordial, I promise. But worry not; I tell Him this now and then in more graphic terms. And you know what? Unlike most of us, He can handle such information. He takes it really well actually: appreciates the honesty, and then He teaches me.

We like the God that shows up for Elijah in a still, small voice more than the One who shows up in a whirlwind to Job. The One that calms the storm when you’re in the vessel more than the One that calms it after you’re in the belly of a fish. And then there’s a special category who like the God of the New Testament than the Old. (Stepping on some toes?) But they’re the same God.

We basically want a heavenly Grandfather and not a Heavenly Father.

Grandparents are the best. They give us sweets( in my case sweet bananas😅), hugs and lots of stories. But they’re too old give us a good whip when we’re getting out of hand. Suffice to say, this is not God.

The work God is accomplishing in the world is hard and protracted. The depths of depravity and deception in which we have fallen is only comprehended by Him who is the standard of righteousness and truth. Consequently, only He knows what it takes to save us.

God is not intimidated to change the trajectory of His good will merely because we will be dissapointed. He is a Father who knows when to discipline us and when to deliver us. Infact, His deliverance sometimes looks like discipline. His love is revealed in both. This is a good time to throw in a verse:

KJV Proverbs 13
24 He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes.

I do not make the assumption that every hard in our lives is due to some wrongdoing on our side. Stephen’s stoning was actually the consequence of His faithfulness. But its kind of like what Paul Scherer said:

God is almost intolerably careless about crosses and swords, arenas and scaffolds, about all the “evils” and all the “plagues.” His caring doesn’t mean that He goes in for upholstering.

So, I am trying to stop wrapping God up with my explanations in the tiny box of my limited knowledge of Him. I’m trying to read all of my Bible and not just the parts that appeal to my bias. I hope you do too. And when it gets really hard, I pray we can trace the Cross.