2022-06 A Good Father

I am reminded of an incident the other day when I was shopping in the Dollar Tree store in my community. As I was looking among the aisles for summer decorations, I overheard part of a conversation between two ladies who were reading through some of the Father’s Day cards. The women appeared to be in their late 50’s to early 60’s. One card must have included in its greeting, a touching remembrance of being loved as a child by her father. One of the women bitterly exclaimed, “Hmph! My daddy never even once picked me up.” In contrast, I have often remembered fondly over the decades since my dad’s passing how he would hold me and carry me around like a delicate, little doll.

There is a myriad of experiences between those two extremes, but one thing is sure, the love and active presence of a father are important to a child. A study done by The National Fatherhood Initiative titled The Strengths of Father Presence found that children with involved fathers have a strong foundation for well-being and are at lower risk for a host of poor childhood outcomes including emotional and behavioral problems which we hear about often in today’s culture.

Regardless of whether our earthly fathers adored us or were a source of great pain, some research finds an association between them and our initial view of who God is as a father. That connection may even transfer into whether we even desire a relationship with the Lord. Often people base that perception on the human, flawed characters of their earthly parents. So, in addition to the thousands of beautiful thoughts found on the Internet about good fathers, there are even websites of absent father quotes from abandoned daughters and sons!

Throughout Scripture, the Lord relates to us as the perfect Father. The most wonderful earthly dads cannot compare to Him for they are flawed; they do not always speak or act wisely, and they cannot always adequately provide for our needs even with the best of intentions. In contrast, with our heavenly Father, we don’t have to be concerned about anything that we need in life because He knows our every need and owns everything. Matthew 7:11 says of earthly fathers, “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!”

Our Heavenly Father is loving and compassionate and wants to have a loving relationship with us. He loves us so much that He sacrificed His only begotten son so that we could not only have an earthly relationship with Him but enjoy eternal life with Him. As strong and powerful as children think their earthly fathers are, their bodies face decline and disease and eventually pass away. Our Heavenly Father is all-powerful, always was, and always will be.

The Lord even disciplines and corrects us as our Father to teach us how to reflect His nature and character. Hebrews 12:10 tells us, “For they [earthly fathers] disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, that we may share His holiness.”