What Relationships Can Teach Us About God

Want to know God more? Look to some of your earthly relationships.

Healthy relationships teach us a lot about God! Anytime we are confused about who God is or what our relationship should be like, we can find clarity by analyzing our relationships.

Now, this might also be difficult due to bad lessons we have already learned. For example, if your father or mother was harsh and demanding, then psychology tells us that we will most likely see God that as harsh and demanding. If your father was cold, emotionally distant, and aloof, chances are that you will believe God is also disinterested in your life and doesn't care for you individually. However, when we clear up the misconceptions, we can learn a lot about God.

God is a loving Father.

We can understand this love more fully by pondering the parents of a newborn baby. They cannot stop staring at the child, and as they cuddle their new infant, they bestow a thousand kisses onto her little cheeks and forehead. They cuddle with her and adore her as they just gaze in awe.

Have you ever stopped to think about the fact that God sees and loves us the exact same way...and more? It’s true. You may hesitate to believe that God thinks about you constantly as the apple of His eye, but it's true! Take the best parents on earth who loves their children with the purest, most unconditional love. Is it possible for imperfect humans to love more perfectly than God? 

Pondering the love of parents and God’s perfection will help us to recognize His unconditional love for us...purer than the purest love on earth!

Spending time with our Father.

Our relationship with God. I once gave a retreat for 200 Confirmation students. Trying to impress upon them how important it was to pray every day and have a relationship with God, I brought it closer to home by likening it to the relationship I have with my wife.

I told the teens that my wife and I do everything together because we love each other. We do salsa dancing together, go out on dates, and talk often, whether at home, at a restaurant, or taking a long walk on the beach. We spend so much time together precisely because we love each other. Can anybody imagine us only speaking a minute or two a day, a week, or a month—on Christmas and Easter only if we truly loved each other?

Then I likened this example to our relationship with God, saying that if we love God, how could we not make sufficient time for Him in prayer? The more we love Him, the more time we will want to spend with Him, just like lovers do on earth. Even if I'm busy, I make sure to find time for my wife, and so we should with God.

The same example can be used for going to church on Sundays. Can anyone imagine a man talking on the phone with his girlfriend for months but never asking her on a date? What kind of relationship do you think they'd have? Would it even last? So it is with God. We don't just talk to God on the phone in prayer every day, but we go visit Him every Sunday also to show we love Him.

A father has rules.

Does the Church have too many rules? Some people don’t like how the Catholic Church has rules. I wonder if these people are going to have rules for their children? Will their children want to follow all of them? We know that rules and just laws are there for our good and the good of society.

Parents who love their children make rules for them in order to help them become mature, responsible adults, and to prevent them from going down a wrong path in life. Should we see parents as tyrants for this? If not, why do some people see God and the Church as tyrants?

How many times do children, especially rebellious teenagers, think that the rules are unfair and unreasonable—or that mom and dad are just “trying to make their life miserable,” when in fact, their parents love them so very much? Just as my parents gave me rules because they loved me, so it’s the same with God who gives His children rules to follow because He loves us. He does it for our good: to lead us to heaven, and to help us become the best versions of ourselves!

Seeing God through the light of earthly relationships can help our faith make more sense, especially on some tougher issues.