When you are at your breaking point...Abba

     Sure. I have been stressed. Stress and I are not strangers to one another. He visits often and sometimes, I open the door and invite him into the home of my heart. But I don’t think that I have ever been so stressed that the capillaries beneath my skin burst forcing blood out my sweat glands. I guess I would call that a stressful moment. Jesus endured more stress than any of us could have ever known. As God, He knew what was coming and He knew that it would be the most awful death ever recorded in the history of mankind. Not only for the physical beating He took, but the anguish of knowing that the very people He came to save were the ones calling for the beatings and the crucifixion.

     Where do you go when you are at that breaking point? When all Hell has been let loose on you and your family and you are at your breaking point, where do you go? I would love to say that I immediately go to the Lord and seek His face, but many times, it takes me a while. Sometimes, I try to handle it myself before I finally go to Him. But, in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus went to His Father.

     Jesus spoke about his Father many times, but the first time that we see the most endearing term for Father was there in the Garden when the stress of the situation was forcing drops of blood out of his pores. It was there as He faced the greatest, most emotional, mental, and physical death ever known in history. It was there where His own disciples could not stay awake to pray with Him and He was alone. It was there that we first heard Him call out, “Abba.”

     Abba is the term that is best translated into “Dad.” At His breaking point, under duress like none of us will ever know, He did not cry out to His Authority by saying ‘Father.’ He did not cry out for strength or power, all of the things that our society values most about Fathers. No, by crying out “Abba,” He was crying out for the love of His Dad. Is there anything more powerful than the love of Dad? It is the overwhelming tenderness from powerful hands. It is the moment when the man who must be strong to protect the family and set boundaries and discipline chooses to love tenderly. This is who Christ called upon.

     Dad, can you be that man? Can you be tender while remaining strong? Can you be there when your children are at their breaking point as a source of comfort. What a gift we can be to our children if we can embody the tenderness of God along with the strength of God. How many children and adults hunger for the love of Dad. The love of Mom is just as significant but different; just as necessary and valuable but distinct from the love of Dad.

     For those who have never experienced it, you can. The Almighty, All-Powerful, Ruler of the Universe is also “Abba.” His tenderness and comfort is found beyond the authority and power. Call out to Him and He will be there.

     And Dads, don’t just be a Father. Be ‘Abba’ to your children. Know them enough to discern their moments of overload, pain, and stress and be ‘Abba’ to them. At the breaking point of a child, whether an infant or fully grown, there is something about the loving touch of Dad and when combined with the love of Mom, what more could a child ask for.