Across the room, behind where I sit as I write this short post hangs a small banner on the wall with my dad’s image. The picture of my dad is the kind you would see of those who have served our country in the military hanging on telephone poles in communities across our nation. It commemorates his specific service to our country.
It is a reminder of my heritage, of a father who loved me, and of one whose name I bear. Recently, I have developed a habit of engaging in a “dad moment” on most days.
As I pass through the room or get up from my laptop for a short break, I walk toward the banner and rest my head on his image to take a moment to reflect.
As I do this, I am either silent and soaking in a moment of deep connection or whisper to my heavenly Father,
“I need you to father me.”
My dad was not the outwardly expressive type, but when he spoke his words were few and highly meaningful.
I recall early in our marriage owing my parents approximately $800. This wore heavily upon the two of us. We came to visit for the weekend and my dad sensed this was on my mind and worry was written all over my face. I did not like owing anyone, especially my father.
Being raised catholic, scripture reading was not openly emphasized. The next thing I knew dad was accurately paraphrasing the following verse and talking to me about birds and flowers, go figure. I was dumbfounded as I listened to him assure and comfort us that all would be OK, while trying to hold back tears!
“Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?
Can any one of you, by worrying, add a single hour to your life. And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own”. (Matthew 6:26-34 NIV)
Upon completing his sermon-in-a-few sentences, dad released us from the debt we owed. I did not know he even knew scripture, let alone one that was precisely meaningful to me.
As I have thought about this over the years my educated guess is dad knew these verses because he lived them against his own experiences, and they comforted him in trying times. Dad was fatherless except for the presence of His Father. When I read these verses or hear a message based on them my dad is instantly present with me.
In short, my dad fathered me when I needed it.
As I hinted to previously, I whisper to my Father often the need for Him to father me.
Our current journey has been one with ongoing challenges and often weighs upon me. There have been times of disappointment, frustration, and wanting to throw in the towel. We live with a heavy dose of uncertainty in our lives and the need to look to our Father as the ultimate resolution has been our comfort until the light of day emerges.
Having a Father to call on has made all the difference.
He has shown me I can trust Him when I cannot see beyond the moment.
I know this is not a news flash to you, but as John Eldredge has stated in his book Wild at Heart,
“We live in a world at war.”
No further words need to be said to describe the condition of our world which has gone increasingly mad!
Our hearts are worn, battled, and bruised. Often, the news of the day leaves us disoriented, not knowing who or what to believe. There has been a sustained assault on our hearts, and we grasp to get a moment to breathe.
Only a loving Father can help us get our heart back.
The battle we face is not liberal versus conservative or Republican versus Democrat. No man or woman will swoop in to rescue us.
It is succinctly a battle of good versus evil between the Kingdom of Light and the kingdom of darkness and it leaves us crying out, “Abba Father” – and the desire to be fathered as our only source of hope and sustenance.
I do not need to list the myriad of things which have us as a society reeling off course. It is way past time to call on our Father, but late is better than never. He told us how we can do this.
I can think of no better time than NOW to exercise the desire to be fathered and offering back to Him the words which He instructed us on how to pray,
“Pray like this: Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy. May your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us today the food we need, And don’t let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one.” (Matthew 6:9-11, 13 NLT)