I went to a wedding of a friend of mine a few weeks ago. As we were going through the celebrations, there was this one song I kept hearing and a line from it stuck out to me. The song is called “For Your Case” by a Nigerian woman named Teni. There is a line in the song where she sings “Cos my papa no be Dangote.. but we go Dey”. Translated this is "my dad is not Dangote but we’ll be together."
For those of you who don’t know, Dangote is a Nigerian businessman with a net worth of about 9 billion USD. In essence, the woman in the song was saying that she doesn’t have the privilege of having a father who is worth billions and all the benefits that come with it, but she’ll love her lover either way. Then I started to think to myself- what are some of the benefits/privileges of having a father who is a billionaire? Why do we see it as a privilege that one has a billionaire for a dad? A few things came to mind:
1. Comfort. Wanting many things and being able to easily buy them all with hardly a thought.
2. Respect and Prestige. In many parts of the world, everyone knows what it means to be 'Dangote'. I can only imagine how it feels to be introduced to a group of people as the son or daughter of Dangote. To watch other's eyes bulge out as they look at you with amazement, respect, and perhaps- envy.
3. Self respect. You carry yourself in a different way because you know who you are. You stand confident and fearless knowing you're the child of one of the richest men in the world.
The next day I was reading 1 John and this scripture jumped out at me:
“See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.” 1 John 3:1
It hit me- I had just mulled over the privileges of being the child of Dangote, but to think about the infinite privileges God gives to us by adopting us in Christ as His children left me sitting in amazement. We can enumerate all the great things we want to think about someone like Dangote, but I wonder if we take enough time to sit and reflect about the fact that the One who spoke all we see around us into being asks US to call Him Father. A good good father at that. Isn't it amazing that of all the wondrous things in the universe that God could be worried about, He sets His affection on little disobedient creatures such as ourselves and sends Christ to die for us that we might have the undeserved privilege of calling him a Father?
Truly mind blowing and you see that this revelation moved David deeply as he penned in Psalm 8:4 "When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?"
There are contrasts between earthly fathers like Dangote and our Heavenly Father:
1. Dangote is not a perfect father. But we have a perfect Father in heaven
2. Dangote has power but there are limits to his power. But we have a good and perfect Father who has no limits to His power whatsoever.
3. Dangote is rich, but he doesn’t have all the riches in the world. And even the riches he does have in this world are sadly of a temporary nature. Because no matter how rich you are, you can not take a penny of it with you when you die and Mother Nature is undefeated when it comes to death. Not saying this is true of Dangote, but I often think that one of the most miserable places to be in life is to be in a place were you have built your whole life on attaining worldly riches only to then realize as you get older that you are going to die soon and you can’t take a dime with you. We, however, have a Heavenly Father who offers us riches that last forever and ever. I don’t think we can even grasp that. Death is scary for the unbeliever who built their whole life on money because they are leaving their treasure behind. But the believer? The believer can approach death joyfully because they are going to their ultimate treasure.
I can imagine there is much pride and respect that comes with being the child of Dangote. But how much more honor and privilege comes from being called the children of the Most High God?
I think the reason why we don’t always feel like we are the privileged children of the King of Kings is because like John says in John 1:10- the world does not know or recognize this King of Kings. Therefore, they don’t give us the praise and honor we expect. I believe the other reason we struggle with this understanding is because we are blind. Even though we are saved, we don’t quite grasp the magnitude of the riches we have inherited by being in Christ. We are heirs of the King of all Kings and yet we are easily distracted. We are seated at a posh steak restaurant but we are fantasizing about a $2 steak.
Paul’s words to the Ephesian Christians are words we must pray fervently even now;
“that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might”
Ephesians 1:17-19
May God open our eyes to understand who we are and whose we are so that we may not be moved by the fleeting riches of this world.
Amen
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