Happy Father’s Day to all the Dad’s out there!
My Dad lives with Jesus now but for the 73 years he walked the earth, he was a force to be reckoned with. For 50 of those years he loved my mom and worked hard to provide for his family, 7 kids (5 sons and 2 magnificent daughters). I had the undeserved honor of being the first born. No honor fell to a less deserving son. All my brothers would have been better trend setters than the one who sat to the right of my father for 18 years before I went off to college.
Nevertheless, God, set his eye upon me and determined to redeem me for his own purposes. On a January day, many moons ago, He brought an emmisary of the gospel to my dorm room who proclaimed the gospel of grace to me. And there in room 210 at the top of the stairs, “He caused me to be born again to a living hope” (1 Peter 1:3). When I believed in Christ and He forgave me, when he gave me His righteousness in exchange for my unrighteousness He set me on a completely different path. Following Jesus is an adventure that changes everyday.
But today, on Father’s Day, I’m missing my Dad and wishing I had someone to call and tell thank you for all of his teaching, and modeling, and discipline, and laughter, and care, and counsel, and jokes, and most of all, for loving my mother and showing his five sons what it meant to honor and love a woman for 50 years.
I miss my Dad.
But praise God,
because of the incarnation,
because of the sinlessness of the Savior,
because of the death, and burial, and resurrection of the Messiah,
because of the ascension of Christ to the Father,
because of the transfer of my sin for His righteousness,
I will see my Dad again. And when I do, the man who was my model and teacher and exemplar will be my teacher again. Near the end, as leukemia was taking his life, his theology was changing. He was learning to trust in Christ. He was learning of the glories of the gospel. And so, for the last decade, since he was ushered into the presence of the Savior, he has been learning about the greatness of the mercies and lovingkindness of God. I’m looking forward to be instructed once again, by the most important man in my life.
See you soon Dad. Let’s talk again.
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