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“As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him.” Psalm 103:13
It’s Father’s Day this Sunday, a day to honor the fathers among us. My dad’s name was Chuck, he was a husband, a father of four kids, custom cabinet maker and farmer. He passed away back in May of 2018.
My dad taught me a lot about cars, hard work, building and fixing things. He wasn’t perfect, and growing up, I was often afraid of him. He was loud, short tempered, and stubborn. He could also be polite, thoughtful, and caring, but that was harder to find. And over the years he changed a lot, even softened a bit. Interestingly, I remember him saying that his dad mellowed out a lot as he aged. His dad had been hard on him growing up. Does that sound familiar?
It reminds me of this quote I’ve seen over the years about what we think of fathers as we age:
At 5 years – Dad knows everything
At 6 years – Dad knows a lot
At 10 years – Dad doesn’t know that much
At 12 years – Dad’s gone crazy!
At 14 years – You just can’t take dad seriously
At 18 years – What does dad know!
At 21 years – Dad’s talking rubbish!
At 23 years – I know more than Dad!
At 25 years – Dad seems to know something after all
At 30 years – Maybe I should ask dad about this
At 40 years – It’s amazing how dad went through all this
At 45 years – Dad has been right all along
At 50 years – If dad was here I could have learned a lot
We all have different experiences with our own fathers and male family members, some better than others. Dads aren’t perfect, and neither are we. We pray for dads this Sunday, that God will help them be good fathers, like our heavenly Father.
I wonder if what we think of our Father God changes as we age, too? Not only our bodily age, but as we age spiritually? Perhaps as an unbeliever, we saw God as an angry, distant God. Or as a new Christian, we saw God as asking a lot of us, demanding perfection, holiness. Maybe we’ve come to see God’s love and mercy in new light. I believe it can change, during different seasons of our lives, with greater love, mercy, and forgiveness.
How do you see God? How is that changing? Growing? Deepening? I challenge you to reflect on your Heavenly Father, especially as we honor our earthly fathers this weekend.
In Christ; Pastor Dan
