A Picture of the Father’s Grace

Posted byChaplainmikePosted inParable, Metaphor and Illustration

http://www.myfoxphilly.com/video/videoplayer.swf

A wonderful picture of the Father’s grace toward us. If you have been told that God is not like this, remember that in Jesus he is more like this than you could ever imagine.

Let go forever of the scolding, punishing God who demands perfection. Embrace the Father who blesses us and delights in us because of his over-flowing love.

27 thoughts on “A Picture of the Father’s Grace”

  2. Pingback: Unconditional love « A Ruach Journey

  3. It’s usually just the “bad dads” that are in the news. This one is a wonderful picture of love. This little girl will have no trouble with the word “Father” applied to God. So beautiful.

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  6. Loved it!
    Right now with all the mean-spiritness out there, we need something like this.
    What a blessing. Michael, thank you for posting it.

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  9. Just shows that God intends us all to play cricket. A game where the crowd must throw the ball back. She is a child and so she has not been corrupted by the evil ways of “Base-ball”!

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  10. Buckley, it’s a rare thing to catch a foul ball at a ballgame, and a point of particular pride to have caught one so amazingly. Most people would expect to take that ball home and put it on the shelf as a trophy. It wasn’t her throwing it hard that was the problem—it was that she threw it back at all.

    Absolutely a beautiful response from that dad. I’ve got two daughters—one three and the other *six weeks*—and I hope I’m always that grace-filled with my girls. I *do* love them and delight in them, in ways I can barely express.

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  11. It was a cute and moving story.

    I digress but I was just thinking about how this would play out in the modern mall Christian “bookstore.” I will abbreviate the sin as FBTB (foul ball throwing back).

    “Sermon Series: Rooting out the FBTBers in the Church” by John Bevere

    “Five Steps to Rid Yourself from the Tendency to FBTB” by Bill Gotthard

    “The Grief of God” (how your FBTB separates you from the wonderful life of bliss that God intended for you) by ?

    “Touched by a Demon” (A Biblical-based account of how FBTBing is sign of demonic oppression) by ?

    “The End is Near and You Ain’t Ready!” (How the fact that the foul ball came in your direction is the final proof that Christ’s return will happen on March 2nd 2010 and you threw it back because you are too stupid to see the oblivious signs.) by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins

    “God’s Secret for Weight Loss Guide: (How FBTB is responsible for obesity and by following God’s simple plan, you can eat all the deep-fried Twinkies and never gain weight.) by Mike Cleveland

    “Be the Potential Non-FBTBer That God Intended You to Be” by Olsteen

    And finally (a good one), stuffed down in a corner is one, “God’s Grace Covers Your FBTB” by Yancey

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  12. I often can’t keep up with the heavy theological debates in the comments, but this? This I can keep up with.

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  14. Was the Foul ball “in play”? I’m not sure what went wrong. Did she hit someone with it? I can’t imagine that a little girl would have thrown it that hard.

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  17. Keeping the foul ball is one of baseball’s “grace” pictures. It’s a gift that comes to you undeserved. Of course, the little girl has played catch and watched ball games, so she does what anyone is “trained” to do by the rules of the game: through the ball back.

    Her father’s look is one of stunned surprise, and then he chooses to give her the “embrace of grace” that will cover up all the questions of “Why did you do that?” He loves her and delights in her.

    Such a neat picture of who we are at some points in our journey with God.

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  25. That’s a great moment. It’s awesome that it’s forever captured on video. A special moment between father and child.

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