I adore both my parents and my dad… well, let’s just say he is:
My hero, rock, advisor, cheerleader, friend, comforter, barometer, sounding board, encourager… and always there!!!

When I was nine I stole twenty dollars from my father’s dresser and then used it to buy a whole box of hockey cards. My father made me pay him back. And he never mentioned it again.

When I was thirteen I returned from the mall one day with my ear pierced, though my father had forbidden it. He didn’t talk to me for a week. Then he did again.

When I was fifteen I came home drunk late, late one night. My father sent my mother up early the next morning to wake me . . . with a pot and pan. After a week or two my dad trusted me again to go out on the weekends.

The oft-neglected book of Lamentations is written to the people of Judah in the midst of their intense suffering at the hands of the barbaric Babylonians. The Babylonians would go on to destroy Jerusalem and exile God’s people but not before every shred of normalcy was destroyed in Jerusalem. It is important to note that the Bible makes very clear that all of this came because of Judah’s sin. However, in the middle of this despairing book come these words: “Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness” (Lam. 3:21-23). This is best summed up in the Hebrew word “chesed,” one of those words that defy accurate translation. My best try is “the steadfast covenantal love of God to the people he has promised never to abandon.”

I am blessed to have found that in my earthly father, and I am blessed to find that in God as well.

My own earthly father is none of those things. I feel it very keenly to have a heavenly Father who can fill the gaps in my life that my dad is unwilling or unable to fill. My heavenly Father completes me. Although I carry around a deep sadness over the non-relationship with my dad, God Blessed me with a surprising gift a few years ago: the realization that even though that relationship may not be fixed in this life, all broken things will be made new in the next life. I can do nothing about the way my dad is or isn’t, but I have faith in the promise my heavenly Father has given me. And that faith gives me a “peace that surpasses all understanding.”

I am blessed to have had a father who modeled his life after the Father. I know that not everyone feels positive about the idea of “father,” however.