FAITH & REFLECTION -- I have had extensive experience with fathers. I've had four of them. My own biological father died when I was 18. I wish I'd known him longer, but he was a great guy and I have fond memories of him.
When I married, I gained a father-in-law. He was a delightful and dedicated Christian man! He passed away in his early 80s. He was my father-in-law for 19 years.
My mother remarried. In fact, she married one of my father's best friends, and he became the respected patriarch of our clan and a lifelong friend to me and my entire family. He passed away in early May of this year. I had the privilege of officiating at his funeral. He was my stepfather for longer than my father and father-in-law put together...45 years.
All three of these men challenged me, enlarged my boundaries and enhanced my life, but sadly their lives all came to an end. While their influence upon me is enduring and memories of them are endearing, they are no longer present.
But I said that I've had four fathers, and if you have been counting you'll notice that I've only mentioned three. In between my stepfather and my father-in-law, I met another Father. The Heavenly Father.
The encounter of meeting the Heavenly Father through His Son Jesus, proved to be both redemptive and adoptive. Redemptive because "...God loved the world so much that He gave His only begotten Son so that whoever believes in Him will never perish, but have everlasting life" (John, 3:16).
The adoptive part of the encounter is explained in Romans 8:15. It says that when we come to God through simple faith in Christ, we receive, "...not the spirit of slavery...but a spirit of adoption as children, and we call out, Abba (Daddy), Father." And this adoption is comprehensive! Not only do we receive the Father's name, but His nature and His nurture.
I admired, respected and loved all three of the earthly fathers I mentioned earlier. They did a lot for me. But there's one thing that they could not do and that was to stay with me. Like myself, they all had an expiration date. The Heavenly Father however, unlike any earthly father, can honestly say "I will never leave you nor forsake you" (Hebrews 13:5).
We had no choice who our biological father would be...but we do have a choice about whether we meet God the Father or not...and it is the Son who introduces the Father! Jesus said that "...no one comes to the Father but through me" (John 14:6). Would you like to meet Him? You might begin something like this – "Dear Heavenly Father..."
BTW, Happy Father's Day!