How do you typically refer to your friend’s parents? Mr. and Mrs. So & So, right? I never felt quite comfortable calling my friend’s parents by their first names, and I still don’t as an adult today! It feels a little disrespectful, as if we are on a casual level as peers. Something about it just does not feel quite right to me, even when they genuinely insist.

Today’s Scripture passage also includes a genuine insistence. It tells us that the Spirit of God leads us to cry out “Abba, Father,” when we think of God. Abba is an intimate way of calling God our Father, our Care Taker, our “daddy,” the one who provides, protects, and loves us. There are no boundaries with God, and the relationship is as close as two best friends, even deeper.

Sisters and brothers, the Spirit of God insists that we call God our Abba, for God knows us more deeply than we can ever imagine. Abba knows and loves us still.

By Aram Bae from D365