Those of us who have the vocation of father are glad for the limitation that imposes on our fatherly responsibility. As a parent I am responsible for my two children. I am their father and the father of none other. This is a blessing when I recognize that other people's children probably ought to have raised their children better than they did. This is not my responsibility because these other children are not mine. Promiscuity confuses the vocations to which we have been called, because no one is exactly sure whose children are whose.

Our heavenly Father also gives us fatherly responsibility in other ways as well. There is fatherhood to the community, what were once called the patres patriae, "the fathers of the nation." Political leaders are fathers in this sense. They are to care for the nation like a father cares for his children by nature. There is a limit to this fatherhood, in that, for example, the President of the United States is bound by oath to do his best for the people of the United States. He is not the world's fixer. The Constitution limits his responsibility according to national boundaries. Pastors are also fathers to those whom the Lord has placed under their spiritual care. The limiting factor for that office is the call of God's people to the pulpit and altar of the church. He is not responsible for the people of another parish, under the care of another shepherd. He is to serve the flock to which God has called him and not anyone else's flock. Fatherhood has boundaries, whether natural, national, or moral.

There is a notable exception to these limitations to fatherhood. God our Father has no boundaries to His fatherly authority: "Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us" (Mal 2:10)? Yes, God is the Father of all, even of those who do not confess His fatherhood. A runaway still belongs to the family and bears his father's name (Lk 15). A fatherhood that is akin to God's is the one conferred by God upon Abraham, who is the father of all who believe. Abraham becomes the father of many nations by an adoption of grace. He is not the natural father of any but Israel. However, through adoption in Christ he names a huge family. What is remarkable about it is that there are no boundaries. They are like the sand on the sea shore (Gn 32:12). Abraham is the father of Isaac and Jacob. But he is also my father by faith in Christ, the ultimate of His offspring. Of course, if Abraham is my father, it means that he still lives. Indeed he does, with all those who shared his faith and now see the face of his Offspring, Christ. Abraham has many sons and I am one of them. The God who can bring into existence that which does not exist (Rm 4:17) can make even a poor sinner like me a son of Abraham through faith in Christ.