While Mother’s Day is responsible for catapulting card and flower sales, Father’s Day has been reduced evidently to beer paraphernalia, novelty office games or grilling supplies that are more ornamental than useful. Dads, do you really want any of that stuff? The clearance tables, weeks later, would have me believe the answer is “no.”
Television and movies succumb to the common tropes of the befuddled father often surrendering to his inadequacies as a household manager or the overconfident but not taken seriously professional or blue-collar worker. Why would anyone want to spend a Sunday celebrating someone like that?
Fathers are often absent from the nuclear family or, at best, disengaged. Then there are families who have lost fathers due to tragic situations, abandonment or terminal illness. My childhood was not unscathed either.
Fortunately, I was blessed with precious father figures for different seasons of life. My Daddy, the definer of what I would think “Father” would be — tall, handsome, a Marine. Oorah! I saw him as strong, although I did not know he was living with cancer. My maternal granddaddy along with my grandmother, stepped in during difficult years to love and to care for me. Later, God provided a stepfather and another grandfather to share love and care as well.
Then there is my husband, with little expectation growing up of having a large family of his own, who has proven to be an exemplary father. He displays love, intentionality and engagement with each of his children. The moments, memories and milestones I missed by not having a bond with my own Daddy in my developmental years, I partake through his relationship with our children. I’m a big believer in God’s redemptive story. Seeing a loving earthly father imperfectly but beautifully echo the Heavenly Father is something to celebrate!
Realistically, not everyone has the same redemptive stories in their lives. There may be generations of absent, disengaged or abusive fathers. It can leave a person jaded from clearly observing the good in another father figure, even the Heavenly Father, yet He is the perfect Father. Maybe a good scavenger hunt through the Bible will set things right:
If you have been rejected or dealt with harshly by an uncaring father, God is tender and compassionate to those who fear him (Psalm 103:13).
Do you see yourself as fatherless? He inclines Himself to the fatherless and the widows and places the lonely and deserted into families and homes (Psalm 68:5-6).
Did your father fail to be the provider he was supposed to be? God the Father knows your needs before you ask (Matthew 6:8), sees your worth (Matthew 6:26), and not only rewards us based on His all-seeing presence (Matthew 6:4) but also gives good gifts for the asking (Matthew 7:11, James 1:17).
Whether or not you have had a loving example of fatherhood, Father’s Day can be happy if you get to know the Heavenly Father this weekend.
Ashlie Miller lives with her family in Concord.
