"Jerusalem! Jerusalem! You kill the prophets and
stone the messengers God has sent you! How many times I wanted to put my arms around all
your people, just as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you would not let
me!" I can still remember the first time I took Emily to the doctor for her
vaccinations. As they administered the shots, she looked up at me with a face that said,
"Daddy, why are you letting this happen to me, make her stop." But I knew that
the little pain she was suffering would prevent much worse pain later. So I held back the
tears, and when it was done, I hugged her and reassured her until she smiled at me.
I want to always protect my children from harm but bad things will always happen. It's
a part of life and of learning. A parent learns that they can't always stop a child even
when there is the possibility of a scrapped knee or a bruised ego. They have to sometime
experience things to learn.
Jesus tries to teach us that God is a good parent, and because he is a good parent, he
sometimes lets us stumble and fall. Then he picks us up and puts a Pooh Band-Aid on our
often invisible scratch and sends us on our way. And like a good parent, mistakes are soon
forgotten and the child is one again the apple of the parent's eye.
In today's reading, Jesus tells the crowds how, throughout history, God's own people
ignored and killed the prophets he sent. Yet each time he came to their aid and freed them
from bondage. Jesus further reminds us that God is such a good parent that he, like a hen
to her chicks, will cover us and protect us from all harm.
I guess there is a reason we call him Father.
