The Perfect Father

"The thought of our Maker becoming our perfect parent - faithful in love and care, generous and thoughtful, interested in all we do, respecting our individuality, skillful in training us, wise in guidance, always available, helping us find ourselves in maturity, integrity, and uprightness - is a thought which can have meaning for everybody, whether we come to it by saying, "I had a wonderful Father, and I see that God is like that, only more so," or by saying, "My Father disappointed me here, and here, and here, but God, praise his name, will be very different," or even by saying, "I have never known what it is to have a Father on earth, but thank God I now have one in heaven." The truth is that all of us have a positive ideal of fatherhood by which we judge our own and others' fathers, and it can safely be said that the person for whom the thought of God's perfect fatherhood is meaningless or repellent does not exist." J.I. Packer, Knowing God, pg 204