My Father and Mother in Heaven

 In the Church of Jesus Christ here in the latter days, the first prophet in our time taught many things. One of those principles is regarding God and who he is. 

“It is the first principle of the Gospel to know for a certainty the Character of God” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 345) 

The prophet Joseph Smith also taught, in a letter to John Wentworth, a newspaper editor of the Chicago Democrat, a number of principles. Thirteen of these principles are known today as the Articles of Faith. The first one addresses this same topic: 

"We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost." source

One of the purposes of this First Article of Faith was to declare doctrine regarding the Godhead. My purpose here is to state at a fundamental level, that God is our Father. I am not saying Father like one would call a priest or minister "father". I mean in a very literal sense that he is our Father and we are His children. 

This establishes a relationship with Him and paints part of the picture of that relationship. When we think about others in our life, our parents, our children, our own spouse, siblings, a friend, coworker, or even a stranger on the street, how we act and how we relate to them differs depending on the nature of that relationship. We act and interact differently with our Father and Mother than we would with say a child of our own. 

Additionally, those relationships evolve. Our interactions with a two-year old child differ from how we might interact with a pre-teen which differs again from a child in their twenties. 

All of these familial interactions also differ from our interactions with say, the cashier at our local grocery store. We may see them often, perhaps more often than we do our adult children, but ideally, our relationship with our children would still be closer and more "involved" than the cashier. 

When I then say here that God is our Father, I literally mean it. 

Another point is there are various adjectives that are appended to that penultimate term "Father" Here are a few and my thoughts on each: 

Heavenly. This is one of the basic ones. Essentially it is a descriptor of location or sphere of existence. Each of us has an earthly father who, in the most basic sense was one of the parental pairing who was involved in the creation of our bodies. The degree of that involvement runs the entire spectrum from warm, loving, involved and supportive fathers to those who "fathered" a child and doesn't even know. Our Heavenly Father is our Father who lives in Heaven, a sphere of existence and even location that transcends our earthly home. We may not understand that sphere, but it exists. 

Eternal. This is a powerful one in my mind. Our Heavenly Father was there in the beginning,,, in our beginning. He was our Father then, He is so now, and will be our Father for eternity. This relationship exists regardless of how we feel about him. We may accept, and embrace him as our father or even spurn and reject him. Our actions do not change the fact that he is our father forever.

God. This is also a powerful one. Our Heavenly Father is a God. To many this has different meanings. To me, a god is a being that is Omnipotent - that is all powerful, Omniscient - all knowing or understanding, and Omnipresent - his existence transcends time. 

Together these qualities of a being say that he has all power to bring to pass what He wills, He understands the scope and consequences of His actions, and he knows what did, does, and will happen as well. Our understanding of this is very underdeveloped and is perhaps one of the chief reasons why so many rebel against him. 

Many questions could spawn from this and I anticipate addressing some of these in future posts like "If God exists, why does He let such bad things happen?" or "If He does exist, why does he not show Himself to us so we know for certain."

These and many others are very important questions to understand and I hope to address them in due course. 

Lastly, I want to touch on one very important point and that is this: If we have a Heavenly Father, then do we have a Heavenly Mother? I do not approach this as an afterthought but I do want to stress one point. Does a good loving Father, who loves the Mother of his children, want to protect her from all kinds of abuse and anger regardless of whether it come from a stranger or even his own? 

I declare here that the answer is yes. With the way that mankind has treated their Heavenly Father, even to the point of willfully rebelling against Him, does he want to open here up to such hate? I know of many stories of willful, disrespectful children who, if they turned to their mother and did anything to demean her, that said father would step in and discipline said child very directly and "energetically". Now if that Father were all powerful as discussed, I am not sure I would want to see that resulting discipline. He takes the abuse from his progeny, and He shields her from it. 

Our families here on earth, are modeled after our family in Heaven. This is very deliberate and this pattern has a purpose. We will discuss this in future posts but understand, the Family model here on earth is not accidental or merely a product of interpersonal socializing. It is divinely appointed and the union of a Family is blessed by God Our eternal Father and she who is our Heavenly Mother. 

One of my favorite hymns is "O my Father" which written and coupled to music started as poetry written by a very talented writer and speaker Eliza R. Snow. I will only post a portion of it here but encourage you, my readers to read through all of the verses and ponder each truth taught there. source

O my Father, thou that dwellest

In the high and glorious place,

When shall I regain thy presence

And again behold thy face?

In thy holy habitation,

Did my spirit once reside?

In my first primeval childhood

Was I nurtured near thy side?

I had learned to call thee Father,

Thru thy Spirit from on high,

But, until the key of knowledge

Was restored, I knew not why.

In the heav’ns are parents single?

No, the thought makes reason stare!

Truth is reason; truth eternal

Tells me I’ve a mother there.

He is our Father. She is our Mother. They love us with a love that transcends our tiny imperfect selves. We are here because of that love and this entire existence is borne out of that love. Maybe when we begin to understand that kind of love we will begin to understand them and then reciprocate that love, as well as love others the same way. 

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. 

Mark W. Gardner