Abba

One day a few years back I found myself making an early morning delivery in New York City and as I was out of hours, and unable to drive further that day, I decided to go explore the town. I had brought countless other loads to New Your City before, but never had the opportunity to just take the day and go see the sights; so I was rather excited about the idea.

One of the first things I wanted to do was explore the subway system. I’m a Virginia boy, and used to live in northern Virginia and work in Washington D.C., so I was no stranger to the D.C. Metro system, but the New York subway seemed to me a much more exciting and historic thing. In truth, a subway is a subway, so if you plan on taking a trip to the big apple don’t get your hopes up about anything new.

By nature I am a gregarious and often find myself in conversations with complete strangers where to the average observer it would appear that we were long-lost friends. This day was no exception, and as soon as I was back on the street, I struck up a conversation with a passing Hassidic Jewish fellow. I forget how the conversation started, but we spoke for about an hour on a variety of subjects, everything from Hassidic life to the Talmud. It was fascinating, but one thing he said hit home to me; he was telling me about his family, relating a conversation he had once with his father and he said the word Abba. When I questioned him about it, he went back to calling him father, but while the word was familiar to me, the way he said it was not.

Abba, the name by which our Savior called God the Father, was a word I knew well. It meant Father. With my limited knowledge of Hebrew, meaning I know less than 20 words, I had always assumed it was a direct translation of the word. However, the way this man said it, with such love and respect, it was obvious that the word mean something much more than just the equivalent of the title Father.

As it turns out, he explained to me, Abba means something much more intimate that Father. There is a word used in Hebrew that is the public title, meaning father, but Abba is more along the lines of Daddy or Poppa. It is, more than anything else, a term of close affection, of love and respect from a child. It is not a title, but a name, a very personal name used by those closest to a man; his children, his wife maybe, the ones that love him the most.

This opened my eyes to something amazing; our true relationship with God the father. We are all children of God, he is the Father of every man, woman and child that has ever lived or that will ever live; but how many of us have the sort of relationship with him that we would call him Daddy, or Poppa? Our Savior did.

Our Savior did and he showed us how to come before our God, he showed us how to pray to him; not in fear of some unknown all-powerful being, but humbly and with love in our heart, speaking to him as to our kind and loving Daddy, our Abba.

The Savior and Abba

Jesus taught us to pray in a way that was new to most men, at least I have never read of anyone speaking to our Father in such a personal and loving way before Christ did. Before Jesus with the possible exception of Adam at his alter after the fall, all prayer was formal and mostly to an unnamed God. Prayer was directed towards, “The God of Jacob, The God Isaac, The God of Israel”, but never to “Our Father” and certainly never to “Abba; Daddy.”

Through Christ we have learned who we really are. We are not the play-things of the Gods as the Greeks and the Romans were taught, we are not the servants of a vengeful and often angry God that ruled the Old Testament; we are the literal sons and daughters of a truly loving and every forgiving Father. I think this is the Good News that so many Christians seem to miss.

The good news is not just that we will all be resurrected, nor is it that our sins can be forgiven; the good news is why these things are true. What good is eternal life, what good is forgiveness if we have no relationship with who is forgiving us?

If you were a factory worker in a large plant owned by a larger company that was in turn owned by a foreign corporation, would it mean anything to you if the CEO sent you a birthday card? Would it mean more if your father who you haven’t seen for years and you miss terribly sent you the same card? That is the good news Christ brought us; our father lives and he loves us personally. He is our Father, our Daddy and yes, he is our Abba.