HONOR YOUR FATHER AND YOUR MOTHER
Sometimes it's been difficult for me to understand the fourth commandment God gave to Moses:
"Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the LORD your God gives you." Exodus 20:12
While most children through the ages have been born into a family with a father and a mother, many others have been the outcome of rape or an illicit love affair. Or, their homelife was so turbulent and abusive that the children feel no love or respect for a parent that treated them so wrongly.
Yet, God says those parents are to be honored by their child. How can that be?
Switch gears in our thinking for a moment. While it's incomprehensible to contemplate, God's ultimate purpose for creating the universe and then human beings is that from the moment of conception people to be born will later populate heaven and live forever.
Too often life on this earth seems long and the span stretches for years to old age. It is so easy to see death as the end of everything. But, in God's eyes, it is just the beginning. He has something in store for all those who live and know Him. His plan defies imagination. We do not know the extent or detail of the life that awaits us in eternity. The book of Revelation concludes with just a glimpse of what it frees us from of earth's hardships: there will be no tears. We know that there is a river of life that will flow throughouot eternity from which we can drink at will.
But God had to pen Revelation in figurative terms that our finite minds can grasp, because their true definition would explode our minds! All that He spoke is being held in store for us as we grapple with the ups and downs of earthly existence while holding on to the truths of God's kingdom and staying true to them.
So, what does that have to do with honoring our father and mother? Can it be that regardless of how you or I were conceived, they are the ones who gave us life and the privilege of being with God forever in heavenly bliss yet to be revealed to us. Had our parents never come together, we would not have been a human being with the heritage of being a soul from that moment on forever!
Yes, I do honor my mom and dad who were married and raised me in a comfortable family and home. I know many others who did not have that same privlege. Nonetheless, they are alive, they are human beings for whom Jesus died, so that their sins can be forgiven and they will live one day in heaven forever---the same route I am taking. Regardless of our parents' motivation and situation, they gave me life, they gave you life that willl continue either in heaven or hell forever.
Jesus then completed the picture, for He alone gives Eternal Life. He wants us to know and enjoy Life with Him for all eternity. You and I will never cease to be living souls because our parents gave us life in the first place---and that, in itself, is a miracle!
Yes, our parents are worthy of honor for that reason, and especially because God said so!