Does God exist? Was Jesus Christ His son? The atheist (a = without, theist = God) will answer no, the agnostic ( a = without, gnostic = knowledge) will answer maybe. Every person of each generation has pondered these questions. Thousands of books have been written in defense of the existence of God and the deity of Jesus Christ, while thousands more have been written to prove otherwise.

When I was a child, anytime we went to the department store, Woolworth’s, I would always look for something I could bring home. Money was always tight so it had to be pretty inexpensive. I would usually have to find something under $1.00, so I started collecting “Big Little Books”. These books fit my needs. They cost .39 cents, were pocket sized, and had tons of pictures, so no reading was required. Somewhere through the years I lost my collection, then a couple of years ago I realized through the power of eBay that I could once again collect these books. This time the cost was a little more than .39 cents, but was well within my budget. There were numbers on each volume, so there are 35 “Big Little Books” In all. Most volumes were very easy to find, some took a little while, others were very scarce, and one was very difficult, I actually found it on an antique site, after a lot of searching.

Luke1:26
And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary.

I believe that Mary was human, just like the rest of us. I believe she lived a simple life. I think she had the same emotions as any girl her age. She was engaged to a man named Joseph. I believe Mary’s life changed drastically the day the Angel visited her, telling her she was going to have a child. Emotions always run high when women are expecting a baby. I am sure there was no exception with Mary. How did she tell her parents? How did she break the news to Joseph? Now their future had a surprise supernatural element. Then, in the midst of all this, Cesar Augustus decreed a tax/census on everyone. This meant a 100 mile journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem. We always envision a perfect Mary and Joseph taking everything in stride, but this added burden created a long journey with makeshift beds, backaches, and, most likely left them feeling unprepared for the arrival of the new born.

Luke 2:16
And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child. And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds. But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.

That year had to be emotionally hard on Mary. She went from a simple village life, through the experience of an angel visit, finding out she was expecting a child, then the long journey to Bethlehem. Upon arriving she gave birth to a child, using a manger for a crib. I am sure these are not the circumstances anyone would choose. Then, suddenly from the dark night, she hears excited voices coming, telling of Angels, Heavenly Hosts, and angelic messages declaring her Son the Savior.

John 3:16
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

God speaks to us in every facet of life. We just have to be alert enough to listen. Every morning the sun rises up and makes its daily path across the sky, insuring life on this planet. The stars are set in the sky, along with the moon and other planets telling us night, day, seasons and years. In spring, life begins and in winter it ends. All creation, every species, from the ones found in the deepest ocean to the ones in our back yard, have all been designed for a purpose. Any and everywhere we look there are signs of God’s love in all creation. He places people throughout all our lives that help us for no apparent reason. He sends teachers that teach us and motivate us to greater things. He sends miracles our way on a regular basis. He sends the blessings of family and friends and even pets to keep us safe and feeling loved. All these are daily messages from a God that does exist, and loves us.

Luke 7:19
And John calling unto him two of his disciples sent them to Jesus, saying, Art thou he that should come? or look we for another?

Even those that are the closest to God will have low times. We all have doubts and sometimes depression that plagues our souls. John the Baptist sitting in prison (the very person that the prophets declared would prepare the way for Jesus), sent his disciples to get reassurance, so that he could die knowing that he had seen the Messiah. How easily we forget God’s presence and blessings. We become blinded and busy, and never look for His hand or listen for His voice. We do not take time to look back or consider the past, the times He has delivered us, and blessed us, we only think about and consider the present.

II Timothy 1:12
12 …for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.

Mary pondered…… In her thoughts she collected all these things together: the Angels, the dreams, the shepherds, the Heavenly Hosts, the promises of God….. and the list goes on. God sent His reaffirming signs; some small and some large. I am sure they were at an exact point when and where she needed them. She had a collection of life experiences that all pointed to a loving God who sent a Savior. As we allow Him, He will do the same in our life. We can look back at our collection of blessings over a lifetime: some small, some large, some very difficult to obtain, but all leading to the knowledge of a loving God and a personal Savior.

There is no way to measure the importance of good parents in the life of a child, from newborn through every stage in life on into adulthood. The values that are passed on are enumerable. Traditionally of course, the mother is accepted as the most important role, who could argue with that? The mother is the nurturer; the one who hugs and kisses the boo boo’s. My intentions are not to dismiss this importance or the value of love that a mother places in a child’s heart. There may be future articles on mothers, but this article is about the value of, and the role of, fathers.

The first question that happens when a couple finds out they are expecting a child is “what will we name the baby”? There is a basic instinct in all parents when naming the child. They usually want to use a name that conveys something that has special meaning, either of a person or an event from their lives. This inclination of the parents is the first defining attribute to an otherwise blank slate that is the baby in waiting. This attribute will be with this child through school and the rest of their life. It will be one of the first words they will learn to spell, and one of the last words given as a testament of their life.

The father’s role in a child’s life should be one of defining. We can call a child a given name, but the father holds the key to defining the child. Years ago I read that “children will worship what the father worships.” The older I have become the more I realize this is true. There are a lot of things that men worship: cars, sports, music, outdoor activities hunting, fishing, family….. the list could go on. I believe God understands our lives and created a world where these things exist. Where God’s place is at in our lives will define what our children understand about us. I have noticed with very few exceptions that the interest and experiences in the children are usually the results of their father

Genesis 35:18

As she breathed her last –for she was dying– she named her son Ben- Oni. But his father named him Benjamin.

This account of Jacob renaming his son upon the death of his wife is one of defining. In her last breath Rachael named her son BenOni which means son of my sorrow. Immediately Jacob responds he shall not be called “son of my sorrow” he shall be called Benjamin meaning “son of my strength”. Through that action Jacob changed the life of his child and set him on a new course.

There is a scene in the classic movie “The Christmas Story” that is played around the clock at Christmas time. The movie is about a boy growing up in the 1940’s and his quest to get a Red Ryder BB gun for Christmas. The movie is narrated by the main character, named Ralphie, now grown and looking back at his pursuit toward manhood. In the scene when the family starts opening the presents on Christmas morning, Ralphie’s mother hands him a present his aunt had sent. The present turns out to be a pink bunny outfit. Ralphie pulls it out and looks at it with total disgust,but then his mother wants him to try it on. He comes down the stairs in a one piece pink bunny suit with bunny ears and pink bunny slippers.  His mother thinks he is cute.  His father tell him he looks “ridiculous”. The bunny suit is a symbol of his childhood that he is trying to get past.  He wants to be considered old enough for a Red Ryder BB gun; the symbol of manhood. His father, shortly after, shows him a hidden package containing the Red Ryder BB gun. His father did not define him with the bunny suit. His father defined him as old enough to merit the BB gun. His father gave him the credentials he needed to grow up.

This is every child’s story. They need the nurturing of their mother. They need the mothers love placed inside their souls, but it is the father who defines them, that names them, that helps them understand who they are. One of the most memorable scenes in the “Lion King” is when the grown up Simba looks into the reflection of the pool and sees himself, now looking much like his father. Then he hears Mufasa saying in that deep voice “Remember Who You Are.” The father names the child; not necessarily the given name, but the self-worth, the motivation to achieve and the calling out of their gifts. He motivates them to become the best they can be. He pushes them in development, to become who they are. The role of the father should be the patient process of a life-long journey.

Matthew 1:20

… “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

God used this principle when He named His own Son, Through the prophets in the Old Testament He gave countless scriptures defining Christ, His Life and future. He defined to Mary that the baby would be known as Emanuel (God is with us). Then, He visits Joseph (Jesus’ earthly father) in a dream and told Joseph to name Him Jesus, His actual name. A name whose meaning would define His mission, given to Him by his Father.

Now this all sounds great and wonderful on the surface, but one nagging question I have as I contemplate this is: “Where are the fathers”? Who is naming the children of this coming generation? In 2011, Almost 10 million families in the US were headed by a single mother. I offer this information not to offend, or put down the role of single mothers. I just want to make a point. We are seeing a generation of children with no name! These children have no way to pass on something to future generations that they don’t have.

Every time I read the paper about some horrific crime or incident, or simply hear a local story of someone making stupid choices, the first question in my mind is “where is the father who defined this person and told them who they are”? Then usually, with very little research, there will be a paragraph in the article or someone will be telling the story of a missing father.

We have a weak nation because we have weak communities We have weak communities because we have weak churches We have weak churches because we have weak families We have weak families because we have weak fathers.

When I was around 3 years old, I had an experience that is forever sealed in my mind. There was a vacant lot behind our house, and there was a stack of cement blocks on the back part of that lot. My sister, age 6, had climbed up on the blocks and was waving at me to come. I got on my tricycle and proceeded through the tall grass that stood between me and the blocks. After much struggle I finally reached my destination. Just as I made it to the blocks, my knee hit into something soft and unfamiliar; a nest of yellow striped wasps. The next things I remember after that are: it was a very big nest, it felt as if my leg caught on fire, and I screamed with all my might. I remember that my father came and picked me up with one hand, while raking the stinging, clinging wasps off my bare leg with his other hand. He then laid me in the backseat of a 1960 Bronze Chevrolet then drove me to the emergency room.

The battle for our souls begins early in life. In fact, before we are born the battle begins.  World-wide there is an average of 126,000 abortions per year. Regardless of what is said, there is more to this statistic than just a simple medical procedure used to get rid of the “problem”. This battle is raging in our world and there is a cosmic reason as well as a local one. Once our world, or we as individuals, start on the slippery slope of devaluing human life, there is no end.

As we are born, we wake up in a world where parenting has become the least important job of society.  There is a break-down of the basic foundations of family. This breakdown starts when the bonds of marriage become just a piece of paper that is issued by a government, and can be torn up with little or no thought. When mothers are deemed as “unimportant” and almost disposable, and fathers useless unless they can provide a paycheck, then it’s only the money that’s important.

Even if we find ourselves born in the best of circumstances, raised by good parents, each stage in life is set up for failure, as we grow older the choices we make, set in motion who and what we become.  The world tries to tell us what these choices should be; Hollywood, fashions, pop culture all try to influence our lives.

As boys grow up they want to be good at something.  Girls want to be considered pretty. If anything is said or done to place doubts on these first foundational ideas, then we become wounded. The depth of the wound depends on who and what caused them. The teen years bring on even more focus on the questions of life, frustrations with ability, height, weight, and feelings that we have been rejected by our family or friends. Then on to college or marriage or career, choices that should fulfill us, but usually fall short. We ask ourselves “what is wrong with us”? Then we realize we still deal with the same wounds and insecurities we had when we were younger.

At each stage of life, once we start to understand the game, the world changes the rules, and offers something else, to keep us totally off balance. The carrot of the “things” that are offered is always a little further down the road. Somehow we always need or want something else, something we can never obtain.

John 10:10

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

The “adversary” uses every insecurity, every wound, as an entry in the calculator that he uses against us. All of our secrets, how unfair life has been to us, how we did not get to grow up like everyone else, or how we were somehow shorted by something or someone. He then tells us that God has failed us and does not care about us anymore. So, we are left to deal with our wounds; some in secret, some open, some obvious and some not so obvious.

Slum Dog Millionaire is a movie about a boy that grows up in deep poverty in India. He falls in love at a young age with a girl who is one of his best friends. He commits his life to save her but having no power, money or resources she is destined to slavery and he is destined to watch it happen. Eventually through all his struggles he finds himself on the game show “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” with a chance to totally change his circumstances. He then realizes the answer to every question being asked has been burned into his memory by all the bad experiences and struggles he grew up with.

Isaiah 61:3

To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified

The truth of the battle for our soul is this:  because of Adam’s Sin we have all been “stung”!  Also, the world is full of wasps, but because of our wounds and our struggles we become stronger, and it makes us who we are. If we can somehow reach the point to accept that every pain and every hurt we experience is used in God’s plan and purpose for our life, and that we need every experience, the good along with the bad, so that we can ultimately become the person God visions in us.

From my perspective, the conversation of Jesus and the woman at the well is one of the most interesting points in all the Bible. There are so many things you can gain by analyzing this supposedly “chance” meeting of two distinct worlds.

The woman was representative of the lowest underclass created by society at that time, a Samaritan of mixed blood lines from several different backgrounds, she also represented a part of history that the jewish people wanted to forget. She was living with a man that was not her husband, she had been divorced and remarried several times. Most scholars feel she was an outcast of even her own people as well.  Why else would she be drawing water by herself, at an odd time of the day.

Whereas Jesus was, on the surface, a Jewish man, representing a pure lineage, unbroken all the way back to King David. As God, He was the Son of God the Creator of the Universe.

The Samaritans had a religious code that mirrored the Pharisees. Samaritans had the same rules of the Jewish “religion” except for one distinct difference: which mountain was sacred.  The Jews worshiped in Jerusalem on Mt. Mariah, Samaritans worshiped in Samara on Mt. Girizim. The woman at the well knew that Jesus would have grown up knowing all these differences and rules.

Romans 8:1

There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus…

So, in their discourse she is expecting to be put in her place: by class, by gender, by which mountain of worship, and then by the established religious rules.   Yet, here is a Jewish man that was required to study the Law from His birth, but she heard no condemnation, even though He knew and understood all that she had done.

As we learn words in our mind, we usually learn pictures, so when a word is introduced to our brain a picture goes with it.  If we think of the word cow, we usually have a photo that is attached to that word in our brain. If we attach a wrong picture for a word sometimes it takes a lot of training to ever change that image in our mind. The Ten Commandments, the Law of God, and Judgments are all daunting to think about.   Rules that God gave us to live by, a Law that is impossible to accomplish, and judgment for all those violations. We all have pictures in our mind of a deep-voiced Almighty God writing in stone with fire, while Charlton Heston (Moses) looks on, or we tend to picture a big man with a fly swat (maybe a paddle ??)  just waiting for us to miss up. It was into just such a world that Jesus entered that day, at a simple place of the daily routine of drawing water from a well to drink.

Luke 18:17

I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”

If you have ever dealt with toddlers, you know that, at times, the world has to stop. There is spilt juice to clean up, there are bathroom breaks at inconvenient times, and of course, nap time. Then multiply that bedlam by the number of toddlers that are around, and add words like moods, sharing and behavior. This is why you have to establish rules when playing in a sand box. The sand box is made so each child can have fun, but there is a price for fun.  There are rules that have to be followed.   The first and main rule – no throwing sand. Now this seems to be a simple rule, but if it gets violated someone will get sand in their eyes. If that happens everything stops for everybody, until the sand is wiped out of their eyes, the pain is gone, and tears are dried.

You see, the difference the woman saw in Jesus was His approach to the rules. He showed her, and us, that God did not set up the rules so He could catch us doing wrong and  punish us. He set up rules so we would not get sand in our eyes. We are not “missing out” when we avoid sin.   By obeying His rules, we are avoiding pain, the very pain that He knew we would face when He created and designed our world. Coveting our neighbors stuff, worshiping “things” in place of God, divorce, and hating each other only leads to hurt and pain. God loves us so much, He does not want to see us hurt, so he established rules.  So, with the help of His Spirit, we can not only have life, but have abundant life!

The Samaritan woman had a “chance” conversation with the Creator of the Universe about how to drink “Living” water then, how not to get anymore sand in her eyes.

Before you can lay a foundation or start a house, you need a plan. In raising a family the same is true. The saying of “if you fail to plan, then you plan to fail” is also true. In order to make the right day-to-day decisions, we have to look at the long-term goals. Too many times we as parents do not look far enough ahead. For example, when a farmer plows a field, in order to keep the rows straight, he has to look out as far as he can see. He then fixes his eye on a goal, something he can keep in his site while he plows. Then he looks toward that goal, not wavering right or left, but plowing a straight line. If we as parents only look ahead 20 years or getting our kids through college, then we are not looking far enough ahead.

Proverbs 17:6

Children’s children are the crown of old men;…

If we are only looking at this generation, we have set our sights too close. The wealthy European families of the past made it possible for their wealth to be transferred to the next generation, and it continues on to this day. This wealth transfer did not happen by chance. The fathers of long ago devised an objective to make sure each generation did not loose their wealth.

In Jewish families, the unchanged stories and traditions of Abraham, Moses and the Feast Days are passed down from generation to generation with each generation receiving information and training so they, too, can continue to pass down the importance of those traditions. No matter what country the Jewish family lives in, they will always remain “Jewish”, and continue to pass on what that means to their children’s children.

Chinese proverb: “one generation plants the trees, another gets the shade”

Parenting today is cheapened by the attitude of getting the kids raised just to get them out of the house, or letting the teachers deal with raising them. Raising up a family should be generational. As Proverbs implies, we should focus our goals of not just our children, but their children. We have to look at our family responsibility from a larger point of view. We have to consider the impact of our lives long after we are passed on.

We live in a world where this concept is totally foreign. We live in a here and now society. We are existential in our existence. We only do or say what helps us today, not what will help our children tomorrow. Consider governments with high national debts: in reality, they are using up the resources of the next generation, only to fulfill the desires of the here and now. The debt is only a symptom of a far greater problem:  selfishness, a “me first” generation, that is only concerned with itself.

Is it right for the excesses of the parents to be placed on the backs of their children? Should the parents not leave an inheritance for their children?

So, if we are to take our parenting job seriously, we need to broaden our view of parenting. We have to look at not only our children but also the next generation. Then, as we make the small decisions of what to allow, what not to allow, we have to understand how it might effect our children’s children.

As all good parents know, our lives are slowly poured out into our children. Our knowledge, our productivity, our sweat and blood, all poured into our children. Parenting is a selfless act. Just as Jesus broke the bread and poured the wine stating that it was “His Body and His Blood”, being poured out, for not only the disciples in the room, but also given freely for whosoever will till the end of time. So we, through our selfless acts of service and love, break our bodies so we can pass onto the next generation what is important, also a portion of what our parents passed onto us. Communion is done in all Christian churches, all in different ways and times, but the single factor that is present is: The past is remembered, the present is significant, the future is celebrated. As parents we draw from the past, we live in the present, and we are always striving to enrich our children’s future. The breaking of our bread and pouring of our wine should be our lives poured out into the lives of our children and to their children.