As a way to continue the conversations in The 51 Hour, we've invited Becky Mitchell to blog her thoughts after each episode. This is a response to Episode 37 on fatherhood, God-Concept and God-Image. Feel free to interact with Becky's thoughts in the comments below

“When I’m spent and restless/A thousand marks I’ve missed/Your cross says, ‘It’s finished’/Not one sin have I missed.”

As I approached this blog, my thoughts jumbled from one place to another because there is so much to say about who God is. Not to mention that I simply could not decide what thought of Chad Miller’s to write about. I landed on a mixture of truths I have learned recently through others, through my Father caring for me as His daughter.

In a theatre performance you are asked to play someone you are not, to embody another individual. At the same time, you are sharing a talent God has given you. You are showing life from another perspective. In the book “Cross-Cultural Servanthood” by Duane Elmer he says, “When we seek to understand and learn from other cultures, we honor God.” If this is true of learning from people, how needed this must be of our heavenly Father.

“When lies say you’re absent/And I feel abandoned/You stir in the stillness/And all I know is this/All I know is this/You love me, You always have.”

The song speaks to the truth of the Father’s ever-present love. I am reminded of how desired I am. I can hear the song declaring who God has made me to be. I hear His truth. I am surrounded in His arms— a hug. The song again tells me who I am. But what of who I say God is? I can hear my sister ranting on the fact that worship is about praising who God is as well. He is our Father.

“Fٳ”

I see the word in an artist’s thought bubble

I see it in my head as

I whisper

the truth

to begin my prayer

“A”

I cry out

for You have removed my fears

I am drawn close to you—

just as the prodigal son

as he returned home.

“Fٳ”

May I not stand far off

distantly questioning Your work

But come

as I am

As a child of God