There are wounds that can make the word father feel less like shelter and more like something we need to survive. Beloved storyteller and bestselling author Charles Martin has spent years inviting readers to encounter the heart of God through the story of Jesus. In his new book, The Reason for Jesus, Charles leads us back to the Father who keeps reaching for our hand, who crossed every distance to bring us home, and whose love is more inconceivable than we can imagine. It’s a grace to welcome Charles to the farm’s table today…

Guest Post by Charles Martin

When our boys were little and we would go anywhere, they’d reach up and grab my hand.

Sometimes I initiated it to control their movements. They could be squirrels. Other times, they’d initiate it.

For them, it was safety.

“When did we stop reaching up and taking His hand?“

Security.

Comfort.

And it was identity.

When they were walking with me, the hand-in-mine thing told them something. And it told the whole world. It said, “I’m his. This is my dad. We’re pals.” So, hand in hand, we’d walk.

I think our heavenly Father looks at us the same way. When did we stop reaching up and taking His hand?

He’s never quit offering it. He’s still our Father. Why would we not?

I once had a lady tell me as she shook her head, “I can’t pray to a father because my dad was not a good man.” I get it. I saw the pain on her face. It makes total sense.

But think about this whole thing from the enemy’s perspective. If the heart of the Father is and always has been to return you to Himself, do you think our enemy—satan—is just going to roll over and not make a fuss? Probably not.

“The enemy is working right this second to wound us—usually through others—and then use those pus-filled wounds to distance us from the Father.“

Chances are about 100 percent, he’s going to unleash all of hell on this singular relationship.

He wants all of us to respond like the precious and broken lady above. He wants us mired in unbelief, distrust, and even anger, fueled by a very real wound. The enemy is working right this second to wound us—usually through others—and then use those pus-filled wounds to distance us from the Father. To separate us.

On the other hand, our Father in heaven wounded His own Son to bridge that distance and bring us back to Him. To return us to Himself. To restore us to relationship. He spared us while not sparing His own Son. Why?

So that you and I might know the love of the Father.

That’s some crazy, inconceivable, I-just-can’t-wrap-my-head-around-it kind of love.

This is the grand metanarrative of Scripture. God the Father wants you to know His love. Intimately. So much so that Jesus died so that we might.

Let me ask it this way—do you love anyone that much?

“The love of the Father is displayed in and through the Son on the Cross.“

That Cross. That bloody execution stake. Would you willingly do that for someone? How about someone you’ve never met? How about someone you don’t like? How about someone who abused you, beat you, lied about you? How about the one hammering the nails?

The love of the Father is displayed in and through the Son on the Cross.

The Cross of Jesus isn’t just this event that prevents satan from dragging us to hell. It’s the means by which Jesus returns us to Abba. No Cross? No return trip. But with the Cross…

This is why God tells Moses, “You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself” (Exodus 19:4). Listen to that again: This is the Father saying, “I brought you…to Me.”

Paul knew this. It’s why he told the Ephesians, and us, “In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ…For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father” (Ephesians 1:5, 2:18). Since the garden, all of human history has been about a return to the Father.

The reason God sent His Son is because He loves us and wants to return us to Himself so we might know that same love.

Love is the root. The cause.

The thing that started it all.

And it’s the thing God the Father wants us to know. In fact, He wants us to know it to such a great extent that He sent His Son to not only tell us about it but die in our place so that we could experience it and know it.

Your wounds are real.

“The Father sent the Son so you and I might know an inconceivable love.“

I’m not discounting them.

I have cried much with men and women over the pain inflicted by their dads who were jerks. But if I could just appeal to you for one second—God is not them. 

Despite the broken, sinful, evil actions of some of our broken, evil, sinful earthly fathers, they don’t represent our heavenly Father even though satan is trying really hard to convince us they are one and the same. They’re not. Not by a long shot.

The Father sent the Son so you and I might know an inconceivable love.

This is the reason for Jesus.

That you and I might know the love of the Father.

Period.

Charles Martin is a New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author. He and his wife, Christy, live in Jacksonville, FL. 

His new book, The Reason for Jesus, reveals the ultimate purpose of the cross is not just a ticket to heaven, but an invitation into an intimate, life-changing relationship with the God who has always wanted you back.

The book is an invitation to move past religious duty ….

and into a transformative, grace-filled connection with the God who desires, above all, to be known as Father.

It’s a compelling read for anyone seeking to understand the heart behind the gospel and experience the profound, personal love of God.

Follow along with Charles on his website and Facebook.

{Our humble thanks to Thomas Nelson for their partnership in today’s devotional.}