This morning, as I was reflecting and praying over the Bible passages I'd read today, I realized in a new way how the character of God as our Father is interwoven through the whole Biblical narrative. I'm not sure if I'll say this well, or if Biblical scholars would agree with me, but I want to try to write out my thoughts on this today. I'm slowly working through Leviticus in my Bible readings right now, and I couldn't help but think today about how detailed many of these directives from God were. It was early enough in Israel's history as a nation that I'm not convinced all of these issues had really been ISSUES yet even, and I began thinking about how and why I give directives like these to my young children. I still have a pretty young family, as my oldest is only 8 now, and I realized that some rules I give to my children are most definitely to keep them safe or to maintain order or even just to protect our provisions for them. However, some of my dir...