NOTES for Gal 4:4-7

In the heart of each of us lives the Spirit of God, by whom we can cry out to the Father. We often forget that God is our Father; we often simply do not understand what a father is. But we also forget that this understanding has been given to us by the Holy Spirit and that we are not obliged to try to reach it on our own. In today's world many people grow up without fathers, while for even more people their father has little contact with his children, is far from home, works too much, is withdrawn, and so on. Many of us believe that because of these psychological reasons, because of a distorted image of a father, we cannot learn to relate to God as our loving Father, and we completely forget that the Spirit of God is already crying out within us: “Abba, Father,” that is, “Daddy.”

And if we are God's children, then we are also heirs—heirs of His Kingdom, heirs of light and joy. We have something to await and something to hope for, because our Father loves us and gave His Son Jesus Christ for us so that we might follow Him into the Kingdom.