I just read about a nationally known pastor whose son committed suicide yesterday.
I can't even comprehend what that might feel like.
I look over at TechnoBoy who's doing an online game internationally, oblivious to the world.
And I try to imagine that I'll never see him sitting there again.
It's a thought I can only hold for a few brief nanoseconds.
I can't bear it more than that.
And now a dad, who is faithfully following Him, will never, this side of glory, see his son again.
Oh man.
Knowing all His names as they are recorded in the Book is a good thing.
We've all read about them or heard them in sermons.
The Lord Who Provides.
The Lord Who Heals.
The Lord Is My Shepherd.
The Lord Is Peace.
Great names.
Names of significance & importance.
But the Son mentions one name for the Father that drives deep into the heart at a time like this.
Abba.
Daddy.
A cry that comes from His child when scared. Or hurt.
A name screamed out in pain or gasped between racking sobs.
Mumbled as arms reach toward Him through the blur of tears.
Abba.
It's uttered while sobbing in His embrace, not understanding at all, but trusting that He'll make it all okay.
That He still loves.
I guess that's why the Son said if anyone was going to come to the Father it has to be as a little child.
A child running to Daddy when things hurt so bad and seem so terribly wrong.
Abba, Daddy.
Abba.