On Father's Day we celebrate and praise our fathers
for the important job they do and impact they have in our lives. Practically,
psychologically, emotionally, they build up a huge part of who we will become,
so the good ones, they make all the difference in the world. I'm especially
blessed with one of the best dads I've ever seen in my twenty-seven years of
experience in three continents, and none of the other excellent dads I've
observed come close to being right for me as a person individually. My dad is
one of my best friends, a great teacher of earthly knowledge and deeper
spiritual life, a sense of safety and stability given me since I was small
child, a great listener when I'm thinking things through and just fun to be
with whether we are doing something silly or just sitting in companionably in
the same room. Most of all though, it's not the great, nice, enjoyableness of
my experience with my Dad that I'm grateful for, it’s the example of who
God is and what his relationship with us is meant to be.
God the Father
Fatherhood is one of the frameworks created to show us
who God is to us, what He wants for us, and what we receive in communion with
Him. Everyone, but particularly women sometimes, either struggle with or
eagerly seek out the closeness of God because the first example given us of who
He is. Who our fathers are to us is key to how we instinctively believe God is,
and we either must overcome that to see what a complete healthy fathering
relationship really is or it draws us close desire more and realize enormous
blessing we've already been given is only a glimpse of the Divine and Wondrous
thing it echoes and reflects.
My freshman year of college I lived in a stairwell of
twenty freshman girls and each week one of us would tell our life story. Again
and again, God seemed to give me glimpses the impact of their fathering in
these girls lives and behavior as I lived with them. I saw divorces that caused
bad relational behavior, loving time spent translated into confidence and
contentment, distant relationships became guarded masks of false identity, and
much, much more in the little details of the lives of people I lived with and observed
daily. Oh how I felt for them and counted my blessings! Not just because I had
the best dad among them, but because I could see the impact it had and where it
was all supposed to lead us, back to the ultimate Father, healer of brokenness
and the great teacher who leads us to the selves we were born to be.
So, I love my dad, and I believe I might be most
blessed of daughters compared to any others…. but it’s not mock quarterstaff
battles with nerf noodles in the front yard, the millions of times and ways I've been
shown I’m loved, or wise council and good parenting I’ve received, that I’m
thankful for in on Father’s Day. It’s because the vivid memory of throwing
myself at my father in complete joy in contentment at his return is a fraction
of what it can be when I throw myself into my Heavenly Father’s arms. The way I
can spend hours siting or walking with my dad talking about all sorts of things
or just in comfortable silence isn't close to the complete and open
companionship I can have in prayer with the one who is always with me.
I bless my father for giving me a more perfect picture
of divine Fatherhood than it seems like should be possible in this fallen
world, but I give all praise and glory to my Father God who
fathers beyond all human understanding and offers it all. To those who have
godly fathers, those whose fathers fall far, far short of good, those who have
no father to guide or protect them, and every child in-between. As someone very
blessed by it, I can’t take away the obstacles keeping others from His Love or
even understand all of the pain for some, all I can do is call out for you to
join me in my Father’s arms, it’s so much more and better than you can imagine!
I may have dived in with a headstart, but there is no end to the Infinite
Father and no end to how far he can take you in His Fathering.
