This Father's Day I have been thinking a lot about God as our Father. I thank the Lord for giving me a godly father, a godly husband to be a father to our children, and I pray that our boys will grow up to be godly fathers in their turn. But the ultimate father to us all is God. For the first time in my life that I can recall, I wished God a Happy Father's Day. I thank him for being a father to each one of us. The familiar story of the prodigal son is only one example from the Bible showing God's fatherly heart toward us. He loves us with a perfect love, and longs for us to be his children. He waits patiently for us. The problem arises in that we often don't want to be his children. It isn't convenient to obey him, we are too busy to bother talking to him today, we don't want to involve him in our plans. But all the while his heart is simply for us to come to him as children. He wants to wrap his arms around us as the father did when his prodigal son came home. He enjoys hearing us laugh, just as earthly fathers love the giggles of their young children. He wants to be involved in our plans, our struggles, our daily lives. In some ways I think that we can all be a bit of spiritual prodigal sons. We may not take our inheritance and head to a foreign land, but in our hearts we all wander off on our own at times and need to say as that prodigal did, "I will arise and go to my father." There is no better place for us. There is no better response. So on this Father's Day, I want to cherish being His child. I want to rest in the trust that my Abba Father is taking care of everything. I don't have to solve all the problems on my own. I don't have to have all the answers. I just need to sit on his knee in childlike trust. I just need to obey my Father. "I will arise and go to my Father."
