My dad was cleaning out his closet one day. He pulled out this shirt-sweater-thing. It wasn’t pretty, but it also wasn’t ugly. It was really cool, though, and I wanted it. It had varying shades of red, yellow, and green stripes. It was a statement piece for sure.
I asked if he wore it, because I certainly had never seen it. My dad’s closet isn’t a place I venture into frequently, unless it’s to help him pick a tie. It’s always the same one: the black one with the different yellow smiley faces. This tie is seldom appropriate for the occasion, but I without fail pick it anyway. It’s nothing too special, except it makes me smile. That’s enough for my dad, though. He wears it every time I have a special event he gets to attend. I don’t even really have to ask him to wear it anymore. He just does.
But anyway, back to the shirt-sweater-thing. It looked comfortable, and since he never wore it, I jokingly asked for it. Without hesitation, he threw it to me. “It’s yours,” he said.
In college, I wore it almost everyday. I’d wear it around my suite or even if I had to go to class. It became a staple. It was warm and comfortable, and though I didn’t speak to my dad every single day I was away, it reminded me of home, and it reminded me of him.
Our earthly fathers have a role: to protect us, to lead us in faith, and to provide for us. They in their vocation model themselves after God, our Heavenly Father. God is our father. We know this. We have a prayer named after Him and devoted to Him as our father (I mean, it’s called Our Father). It was one of the first ones I ever remember learning, and my own dad helped teach it to me. And if we turned to God like we do our earthly dads, or turned to our earthly dads like we do to God, we understand love in a whole new way.
God might not be wearing our favorite tie or throwing down weird shirt-sweater-things from His closet. But He gives freely like this, without condition. He gives us the things that we need and love (in His time) and says, “it’s yours,” with a big ole’ smile on His face, because He knows He’s making His child happy. He shows us love how we best receive it, like my dad shows me love by wearing that tie. It’s the little things, and the big things that God does that reminds me of His perfect fatherly love.
God, our father, also provides. He leads us to His son. He protects us. He loves us. Oh, how He loves us. And if there’s one thing about my earthly dad I am sure of: he loves me, just as my Heavenly Father does, without condition or abandon. I might not always believe it, and I might not always see it, but I know that love, however he decides to show it, is there.
He models God’s love.
To the fathers who stood by our mothers as she carried us for 9 months; the fathers who raised us; the ones who are in Heaven with Jesus; the ones who adopted children; the ones who marry into a family and call his wife’s children his own; the ones who have lost children; the ones who are awaiting a child; the ones who are nurturing like a father should be; and the ones who are learning how to love more and more each day like our Heavenly Father; to the fathers who are trying: to all fathers, especially mine, Happy Father’s Day. Your love, pure and sacrificial, is appreciated more than you know. Thank you for leading us to Jesus, and thank you for loving us like our Heavenly Father.
I thank God everyday for choosing me for you.
