Daddy's girl

Come as a child when praying and heeding God | Andrée Seu

Illustration by Krieg Barrie

We know very few of the Aramaic sounds actually formed on the lips of our Savior during His time on earth: "talitha cumi," "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani"—and one other: "Abba."

How did only these trickle down to us intact? In the case of Abba, might it not be that the apostles were so startled by their Master's intimate manner of address to God that a buzz about it made its way finally to Paul (Romans 8:15)? No one in history had ever talked to Yahweh like that.

Abba is not only familiar, it is childlike. I was married long enough to a Korean to detect which of three levels of address he was employing in conversation. There was one you reserved for your elders and betters, one for your peers, and one for your children or servants. Jesus came to God as a child to a father. "Abba" is like "Papa."