On this Father’s Day, I think about my own Father, and His Father who died before I was born, my Mother’s Father and some other special men who from time to time God put in my life and used to further flesh out the image of a “Good Father”… like the Father of the Prodigal Son, who was loving, generous, equitable, patient in waiting, trusting in God’s purpose, plan, and timing and not withholding from either of his children what each most needed, even if it wasn’t always what they, through words or actions, desired or believed was their sense of their destiny. But he was also wise and loving enough to both children to allow their mistakes of judgment, foolhardy actions, petty jealousies, hurt feelings or broken spirits to come to light in God’s way and in God’s timing, and then dealt with each as they approached him. He didn’t helicopter over them to protect them from life and themselves. He did not chase after them or demand that they follow his own life’s agenda. He was who he sought to be in integrity with The Lord and he gave them room to develop and become themselves, as well. He loved, listened, blessed, served, welcomed, celebrated, comforted, and gave them each a legacy more important than their inheritance of his possessions. He gave them grace.
Not everyone has what she may think of as “good parents”, but you may rest in God’s grace knowing that God is your True Good Father (and bears within Himself the character, too, of “Good Mother”, as well, for God is Spirit, neither male nor female but the all-sufficient Parent to whom we may look regardless of how inadequate our parents’ equipping for the task may have been. He has put you here on earth because He loves you and He has a plan for you. We may feel that we were cast among wolves in the world, even with our parents, but God is still our Good Father and He has made sure that there are Good People, His People, in the earth to whom we may look and draw our images of Him in our growing hearts and minds until we can see Him clearly. (6/19/2022. CBB)