Father’s Day Thoughts

Saturday night, I pulled into the driveway — finally back home after a day of airports and economy seating on packed airplanes.  It is always nice to be back home. Sunday was Father’s day and it was tempting to sleep in, but I wanted to honor my heavenly Father and so I pulled myself out of bed, and drove to church with my son and grand-daughter. It was a wonderful time of singing songs of praise to the Lord and listening to God’s Word through the sermon. I was very glad I didn’t miss it — it would have been my loss.

 

This Father’s day — I thought back to 1976 — I was 23 at the time.  That was the year that I learned that the father that raised me wasn’t my ‘natural’  father.  He had married my mother when I was about 2 and adopted me, so I had his last name and I  spent my childhood not knowing any different.

 

One night in 1976 though, while I was attending apprenticeship school, my wife received a call from my natural father saying that he wanted to meet me.  She was shocked and confused so  immediately called me at school and I came home . A phone call setup a  meeting between us the following week  and over time, we become friends.  I met his wife, 3 grown children, lots of relatives and finally connected the dots on my true history.

 

1976 was also the year that I met my heavenly Father. A few months earlier, my wife and I — unable to get along after 4 years of marriage and desperate for help — went to the local store and bought a ‘King James’ bible.  It was a bit difficult to read with the old style English, but the Holy Spirit opened our eyes for the first time to truly understand what we were reading.  After about 6 months of reading the Bible almost every day and with some encouragement from a co-worker — both my wife and I decided that we had finally found the true answers to life — in the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

That was the beginning of our new life — a life of learning to follow our Saviour and to let Him change us from the inside out. We knew that we were now on an exciting journey that would take us through this life and bring us safely into His presence for eternity.

 

That’s why – when the phone call came that evening — I was okay with it.  I knew that the timing was in God’s hands and that there was a good reason for everything that He allowed to happen in my life.

 

I also knew that God wanted my natural father to also hear what God had been doing in my life and we had many times to discuss that in the following years.

 

In 1987,  my natural father became very ill and had to have a heart transplant — one of the earlier ones in the United States. He seemed to do well at first, but died of complications 18 days after the operation. I had the privilege of doing the funeral and graveside service for him and another chapter of my life closed.

 

Last night, I made a phone call  to the man I have always called ‘Dad’. He is the one who raised me, taught me to fish and hunt, bought me my first car, and did his best to help me become a man. I don’t see him very often but after talking with him — have decided that a weekend visit is in order, very soon. We are both getting older and we don’t know how many more seasons we’ll have together — and besides, He has not come to know Jesus yet as His personal Lord and Savior.  My prayer is that this will change before he leaves this life behind.

 

Father’s Day has a lot of meaning for me — on several fronts.   I was destined to be part of 3 families — two with father’s that were fallible and yet did the best  they could to reach out to me as a young man. Another One — the eternal God of Heaven — the gracious and loving Father who never fails and who I trust with my life.

 

I know one thing for certain — I’m grateful for Fathers this Father’s Day. 

 

 

"Therefore, be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God, as a fragrant aroma." (Ephesians 5:1-2)

 

 

Advertisement