One of the best courses I’ve ever taken was “moral development” by Dr. Donald Joy.
My best memory of that course was the role of mom and dad in a child’s moral development. From birth until puberty, a child will bond with the parent of the same sex to discover what it means to be a boy or a girl.
Then children will, over several years as they approach puberty, transfer that bond to the parent of the opposite sex as a test of his or her sexuality.
A boy wants his mom to say, “You’re growing into a wonderful young man, much like your dad.” And a girl wants her dad to say, “You’re growing into a beautiful young woman,much like your mom.”
But there are consequences when mom and/or dad are absent. For example, we’ve come to a time when lots of people don’t know the difference between a boy and a girl?
A boy without a dad is likely to become a “Fonzie,” struggling to become a man without a role model, a “bully” or a “macho man.” A girl without a dad is likely to become promiscuous, wanting someone, anyone, to tell her she’s growing into a beautiful young woman.
What shall we say, then, of Abraham, the father of our race? What was his experience?
Abraham is our “spiritual dad,” the example of our faith in the unseen God who created the heavens and earth.
According to the Pew Research Center, about 90 percent of American adults believe in God or another higher power, but only 54 percent say they believe in the “God as described in the Bible” i.e. only 54 percent believe God is who he says he is. Believing God is best described as a “trusting God,” meaning we know God is who he says he is and he does what he says he’ll do.
In fact, God’s name is “Yahweh,” meaning “I am who I am!”
When the Israelites wrote down God’s name, they left out the vowels and avoided even writing down or saying God’s name, because to know someone’s name is to — in some ways — control that person. If I know your name, I can make you look up or turn around by simply calling out your name.
So God’s name was written as YH W-H… and at some point both the vowels and the pronunciation were forgotten. Later, someone added the first two vowels, “a” and “e” to make God’s name “Yahweh” — he is who he is!
So what does it mean to say we have “faith” in God? It means we believe he is who he says he is — Creator or Father, Redeemer or Son, and Sustainer or Holy Spirit.
He is a God of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and selfcontrol. And Abraham was saved, not by a law that didn’t exist at the time, but by his faith, his trust, his belief that God was who he said he was, his belief that God would do what he said he would do, and his belief that his own best path in life was doing what God wanted him to do.
Charles “Buddy” Whatley is a retired United Methodist pastor serving Dawson Street Methodist Church in Thomasville, Ga. With wife, Mary Ella, they are missionaries to the Navajo Reservation.
