Father's Day

I am profoundly grateful for a loving father in this life. I know what it is to love and be loved by one who takes seriously the high calling of fatherhood.

"Daddy" is one of the most beautiful words spoken. I love my daddy!

Our culture is sorely lacking in rising to and respecting the role of fathering. Even a brief survey of the greeting card selection displayed for Father's Day reveals the telling truth of what sells in America: scratch and sniff cards abound with jokes of hogging the remote and yukking it up with bathroom humor. We appear to be a people uncomfortable with honoring and being affirmed by fathers.

Sadly, too many never know what it is to be loved and supported by our earthly fathers. I can understand how this imagery is a barrier -- even a huge obstacle -- to women and men alike in relating to God as Father. None of us can live into our roles and relationships without error. Ours is not a perfect world. Yet, Jesus offers a model of redemption for us, showing One who is mindful of us. The Abba, Daddy always awaits and yearns to be present to us. Even those who have known no father have a loving heavenly father who redeems the wasted years the locusts have eaten and who is able to restore unto us a sense of acceptance and love that many yearn for all their lives.

Our Heavenly Father is neither a distant judge nor an aloof cosmic magician, but, in the Great Mystery, a very present help in time of trouble. A companion today through the Spirit. God's very name is I AM.

Loving us NOW.
Loving us as we are.
And loving us too much to leave us unsatisfied and unfulfilled when there are dreams to awaken and lives to be lived with the power and conviction God offers to each of us.

May we learn to forgive imperfect fathers who are absent or otherwise unavailable to live into the opportunity that is or was theirs. It was their loss, but it need not be our bondage.

May we learn to walk gracefully into a future equipped with the knowledge that we are cherished and beloved by One Who loves with a perfect love.

O, wondrous love is this, oh my soul!