While editing notes in The Quest Study Bible, Marshall Shelley underwent a test of faith. His wife gave birth to their first child, a daughter severely retarded and completely invalid. Eighteen months later, a second child was born who lived for only one minute. Six months after that, their first child died. Shelley said he was obligated to ask God his most honest questions. He said, “God’s not offended by that. In fact, He invites it!”
Only an “Everlasting Father” could invite us to bring to Him all the emotional and spiritual junk that we’ve been carting around for years. This Everlasting Father born in Bethlehem’s barn grew to die and be resurrected from the dead so we could make it through this earthly life, a life that is cruel where children are sometimes born retarded, where children sometimes die from hunger and disease, where children are abused by earthly parents and the system of slick and sick greed and exploitation. It’s a world in which we big children have gotten our priorities all fouled up, thinking we really need something, when, in reality, we know we don’t need it at all. Each of us suffers from the harshness of this earthly life.
That’s why I’m glad there is an Everlasting Father who listens to us and provides for us. He grants to us what we need. And He knows what we need better than we know what we need. To borrow from a sitcom of the 1950s, “the Everlasting Father Knows Best!” So when you are tempted in these days to rely upon the provision of the world, I invite you to remember the provision that comes from Jesus Christ. A Child.
A Child, a Child is born for us;
A Son is given unto you and me.
He is the Gladness of eternity;
for He was born to set all people free.
Everlasting Father is His name;
Forever caring for His children’s pain.
Creator and Sustainer of our lives;
Protecting us throughout these days of strife.
A Child! A Child is born for us, and Everlasting Father is His name.
Pastoral Blessing
Depart, now, into this Advent Day, under the mercy of God, your Heavenly Father.
And as you go, remember:
Through the Generosity of God, you have been granted all that is
necessary for the journey by a Benevolent Father;
In the Kindness of God, you have been forgiven your sins and restored
to the joy of your salvation through the tenderness of a Good Son; and
In the Love of God, you are being renewed and sealed for the Day of the
Lord by a Providential Spirit.
Glory be to the Lord God – now and for all time to come. Through Jesus Christ.
Bethlehem’s Child. The Everlasting Father. Amen and Amen.
--Jimmy Gentry is Pastor of Tabernacle Baptist Church in Carrollton, Ga.
Scripture references within the text are from the Contemporary English Version, 1995, unless otherwise noted.