Our Cry to the Father

By Peter Lundell

On an out-of-town trip, I stayed at the home of our church members. Their baby cried at 3:00 a.m. and again at 6:30 in the morning. Parents of newborns may yearn for the time when their child sleeps through the night. But, not being in such a position, I just listened.

The cry sounded almost like a song calling out to parents. I thought of the babies I’d heard cry: in Minnesota, where I grew up; in Haiti, where they’re born into abject poverty; in Japan, a completely different race and culture. The cries were similar. Rich or poor, Eastern or Western, the babies all called out to parents.

Each child grows up speaking a different language and eating different food, going to school or remaining illiterate, working in an office building or hacking plants with a machete, living in a house or a mud hut, riding a car, a train, or a donkey. That person may connect to God or turn away.

On the day the person dies, he or she may cry out, and that cry may or may not be verbalized. The cry at death will be like a child’s call to the Heavenly Father, or it may be an aimless call into an unknown void.

Our lives appear so different as we live them, yet at the beginning and the end they sound much the same.

And I wonder if in God’s eyes the lives we live are not so different. Perhaps to Him our hardships and successes don’t matter so much. I suspect that, like a parent, He longs to hear us—whoever we are­¾call out to Him long after we’re babies and never stop until our dying day.

How is your voice doing?

This devotional is dedicated to the baby named Caleb.

PRAYER: Father, my Father in Heaven, my Dad, from birth to death I will always be Your child. You hear me when I call to You, and I will never hesitate to raise my voice.

“The Lord is just in all his actions, and exhibits love in all he does. The Lord is near all who cry out to him, all who cry out to him sincerely,” Psalm 145:17–18 NET.

Today’s devotion is by Peter Lundell, author of Prayer Power. A rising new voice on connecting with God, he is a pastor, Bible college teacher, and conference speaker. Visit him at www.PeterLundell.com for his inspirational “Connections” and free downloads of articles, parables, short stories, and book chapters.