The following post was originally written by Rachel Herbeck for the Be Love Revolution blog June 13th, 2018.


What do you think Jesus will get God the Father for Father’s Day? A Father-Son fishing trip to Alaska? I know, I know, they probably don’t celebrate Father’s Day in Heaven. But as we approach Father’s Day, I realize that I often forget that Jesus and the Father aren’t just two members of the Trinity; they are Father and Son. Salvation History shows us that relationship with great intimacy and tenderness. Jesus’ death and resurrection reveal to us the Father’s heart of perfect love and His destiny for our lives, while His earthly life models for us how we are to live in relationship with the Father.

Jesus’ Passion: An Expression of the Father’s Heart

Before Jesus was born of Mary, He lived in perfect glory, intimacy, and unity with His Father and the Holy Spirit. After the fall of Adam and Eve, God desired man to be restored to his original glory. That means that the Father desired you and I to be with Him in Heaven, sharing in the love, intimacy, and glory that He had with Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, before the foundation of the entire world. Let’s stop here for a moment. Can you believe that? The surest thing that you know about your future is that God the Father has plans for you to share in the very glory and love that flows between God the Father and His Son, Jesus.

You know how the story continues: the Father sends Jesus to bring all men to Himself. The Father wanted you to be with Him so much that He gave up His only Son to make that possible. But the Father doesn’t stop there. He doesn’t just want us to share life with the Trinity as citizens of Heaven (as if that wouldn’t be enough), He wants us to share life with Him as His very children. This is an incredibly important and intimate detail. Isn’t it much different being a member of someone’s family than it is their friend? St. Paul writes, “For He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless in His presence. In love He destined us for adoption as His sons through Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 1:4-5). The Father allows the blood of His Son to be shed so that through that blood, we become heirs of the Kingdom of God and adopted children of the Father.

Jesus’ death and resurrection reveal to us the very desire of the heart of His Father: to be with us, as near to us in love as possible for all eternity.  Behind Jesus on the cross is a Father who weeps for His pained Son but rejoices that His Son has come to bring us Home to our Father. Read More»


Rachel Herbeck is the youngest daughter of Renewal Ministries’ staff members Peter and Debbie Herbeck. Rachel is a graduate of the Catholic Studies Program at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, MN. She has worked in ministry to junior high, high school, and college age girls. She currently resides in St. Paul, MN where she serves as the policy and outreach coordinator for the Minnesota Catholic Conference.


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