I was in a humorous mood, so within earshot of my wife I decided to playfully share the rules of being part of our family with my baby boy. Rules that he would have to keep for us to accept him into our home and lives… Obey them and be welcome, disobey and you’ll be kicked out.

I was joking, obviously. Having such rules for a baby would be totally absurd. When we receive a new-born from God, we accept him/her without any conditions. We adjust our lives to accommodate him/her and make huge sacrifices to assure his/her well-being and comfort.

Yes, eventually there might be some ‘rules’ and other education or upbringing aids, but never do we impose these with a sense of “Break them and you’re out on the street.”

When Jesus spoke to those interested (Nicodemus comes to mind first) about becoming a follower of Him, He used the metaphor of being born again. The story about my encounter with my son above gave me great new insights into this metaphor.

When we are born again, we don’t inherit a set of rules that we have to keep lest we be kicked out into darkness again. We get a relationship with a loving Father — through Jesus. We aren’t expected to be perfect immediately. We are helpless on our own in this new way of life. We need nurturing and love and patience. And God provides this for us — inside a relationship.

Just like our relationship with an earthly father, we are expected to conform to certain expectations as we grow up. The longer we walk with God and work with Him, the more we learn and accumulate wisdom. We learn how to be part of God’s plans and God’s work. We learn how to be part of God’s family. This makes claims on our behaviour and determines a wise and unwise way of life for us to choose.

And, unless we reject God as our Father, He will never reject us. God is “… a God of mercy and grace, endlessly patient — so much love, so deeply true — loyal in love for a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, rebellion, and sin” – Exodus 34, The Message.

However, as with any earthly father, God does not ignore sin, and therefore we shouldn’t think we can make a mockery of Him by willfully living in rebellion instead of embracing his freedom and abundance.

Why don’t you take a minute, sometime today, and just thank God for this new birth, and new life that He has granted you through Jesus? Why don’t you thank Him for being the best Father that ever existed? And… remember to live inside this Father–and–son or Father–and–daughter relationship with Him… every day! He wants to hear from you, talk to you, and take care of you… but He won’t force this on you. It’s up to you.