Once a Year

Over the Christmas period there are many conversations with lots of single parents that I know. There is one question that always seems to come up. “Where are the children spending Christmas?”

There are different responses, their father this year; it’s their mother’s turn or they will be with us this year. Sadly there is often a comment that makes these situations sad and that is “it’s the only time we get to see them”.

As I reflected on these conversations I thought of another father who only gets to see his children one or twice a year. Yes, that father is our Heavenly Father, God, who only see’s so many of His children at Christmas or Easter. How many people believe that they only need to go to church at Christmas, Easter, for Weddings, Funerals or Baptisms? So many, yet they are His children who He loves so dearly. There are many reasons given for not attending. Some don’t care, some have been hurt so badly and others just consider that there is no need to attend Church to have a relationship with God. Just like our earthly parents our Father God hurts when you ignore Him.

"Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. Luke 13:34