One Father....

It comes up in UR discussions now and then....whether or not we are all really God's children. It usually comes up as a response to the sentiment (expressed by me) that God will not give up on one of his children. Many think we are adopted into God's family by our belief, by our faith....when we "get saved." They think that before that monumental event, even though we are all loved by God, we are not his children. I came upon a verse I had stumbled upon a while back and then lost ...only to be found again recently as I was rereading an article on God Quest. Even though it is posed as a question I think it is a rhetorical question....

Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us? Why then are we faithless to one another, profaning the covenant of our fathers? Malachi 2:10

Indeed....do we not all have one Father? And in Psalm 82 it declares:

⁶ I said, “You are gods,
sons of the Most High, all of you;

Sons of the most high...ALL of you.

And how about the words of Jesus?

"And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear my voice, and there will be one flock and one shepherd" -Jesus

And a quote by Tennyson (although not scripture of course, but that fits with this line of thinking)

"The great good God looked down and smiled and counted each his loving child, for monk and Brahmin, Turk and Jew, loved them through the gods they knew"-Alfred, Lord Tennyson