My Father The Hero

I love thinking of analogies that come out of movies... and I know others do too, because I've seen and used books full of them. Well here's one of my very own. I remember watching the movie ages ago, so forgive me if you have watched it a million times and know every line - but here is what I remember from it. My Father the Hero starring Gerard Depardieu... is about a father who loves his daughter very much, and a daughter who is manipulting him and casting dispersions for her own gain. The dad eager to spend time with his little girl and get to know her better, takes her on holiday to this amazing resort. The girl, embarassed to still be taking holidays with her Dad tells people he is her lover, or her uncle, or a number of sordid things... people look at him with disgust and/or envy... and a variety of semi funny things ensue. So where is the analogy?? Well I was thinking this is how some of us are with God, OUR Father. We aren't happy to show the world what our relationship is to Him.. some are ashamed of their belief and relience on him, some have a stilted view of who God is but proclaim their opinions loudly anyway. Some choose to show off their spirituality but hide the real, raw, somewhat dysfunctional relationship they have with God... dysfunctional not because of God or His love, but because the person is pursuing a relationship with an idea or a characature rather than a Person... anyway, this girl paints a picture of her Father that just isn't true, but when she realizes that despite all of that he still loves her - no one believes her. They continue to believe the lie! Don't you see us doing that?? Wanting to sell someone on God... or a certain idea of who God is??
I was reading John 8 lately... and Jesus said some pretty challenging things to the Pharisees. They called God their Father, and He said that really their Father was the father of lies (vs44). They called Abraham their Father, and Jesus tells them in a nutshell that they are not a part of his lineage.(vs39 - "If you were Abrahams children you would do the things Abraham did.") They don't know God and Abraham is not their Father, because they deny Christ!(vs 19) Jesus tells them I am the Son of God, I am before Abraham was born(vs 54-58) "I always do what pleases Him [the Father]"(vs 29)... Man they got angry! They wanted to stone him... but what I find interesting is - He said they weren't God's children because they have followed lies instead of the truth, they had manipulated and twisted the law God gave through Moses for their own gain. I think whenever we deny any aspect of God, we begin to create a god of our own. A Father on our terms.. A "heavenly father" of our own making. We decieve ourselves and the truth is not in us! So, what do we do?? Well, let's take time to find out the truth about who He is... shall we??
P.S. another movie to check out that I thought everybody has seen, but apparently not - is Pirates of the Carribean, as most of you camp attendees know it is rife with Christian Analogies...