family

Father of Mine

Frank

In the Holman Christian Standard translation, “fatherless” appears 40 times. The first instance reflects God’s passion, “You must not mistreat any widow or fatherless child.” (Exodus 22:22) Elsewhere, we read that God is the defender of the fatherless, he executes justice for the fatherless, and so on.

From The Mentoring Project, they estimate 25 million children are growing up in fatherless homes. Children from fatherless homes are more likely to be involved in violent crime, more likely to join a gang, more likely to become addicted to drugs, more likely to drop out of school, and so on and so on. You could argue correlation does not mean causation, but the statistics are too strong and broad to ignore. If you don’t think not having a father around affects our youth, check out the comments left yesterday, Father’s Day, on the YouTube page for the above video.

But it doesn’t have to be like this. God “defends the cause of the fatherless” (Deuteronomy 10:18). If we are after God’s own heart, then we should also be defending the cause of the fatherless. Here are just a sampling of online resources, blogs, and friends who have taken up this cause. Some are focusing on the fatherless, others are strengthening the fathers who are present. My prayer is that together we can reflect God’s heart and his character as the perfect Father. Not every father will be faithful, but God always will be. Perfect father of mine.

Flashback Friday: Call Your Mother!

Frank

***Originally posted right before Mothers’ Day 2009. I think I’ve called my mom at least once since then. šŸ™‚ ***

Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Dear woman, here is your son,” and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home. -John 19:25-27

Even in Jesus’ most trying time, he remembered to take care of his mother. Even after being arrested, humiliated, beaten, and crucified his mother stood by him to the end. Thank God for moms.

Happy Mother’s Day

They Laughed

Frank

Last week I talked about Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac, commenting on how the things that stress us out are usually blessings. But let’s flip back a couple of chapters before Isaac was born and the blessing was promised.

“Then the LORD said, ‘I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son.’

Now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, which was behind him. Abraham and Sarah were already old and well advanced in years, and Sarah was past the age of childbearing. So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, ‘After I am worn out and my master is old, will I now have this pleasure?’

Then the LORD said to Abraham, ‘Why did Sarah laugh and say, ā€˜Will I really have a child, now that I am old?ā€™ Is anything too hard for the LORD? I will return to you at the appointed time next year and Sarah will have a son.’

Sarah was afraid, so she lied and said, ‘I did not laugh.’

But he said, ‘Yes, you did laugh.’ (Genesis 18:10-15)

We stress out about blessings, but sometimes we don’t even believe blessings can happen. Here, Sarah doubted the promise of God. She thought the blessing was so ridiculous that she laughed. We respond the same in our lives as well. “Are you kidding me? God would never do that for me!” We laugh at God’s promises to forgive and reconcile, to heal and sanctify. Sometimes we even laugh off the promise that God will take care of us when times are hard. “God is giving me what I need? I need a job, that’s what I need!”

But what we really need is faith. It would be easy to laugh at this promise: “I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ā€˜Move from here to thereā€™ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” (Matthew 17:20) That is, until you see it happen.

A few years ago my wife gave up her full time job teaching to raise our firstborn. She was committed to be there through his infancy. We were both making entry-level salaries and had just bought a house. Finances would be tight. We knew that. But we also knew it was necessary. Shortly after making this decision, I got a raise. It wasn’t enough to make up for her lost income, but it helped.

About a year and half later, my wife was ready to return to work. She went in to interview. She had the experience. She had recommendations. She was working towards her credential. She was a shoe-in. But she wouldn’t take just any position. She would not work full time in order that she could continue to be with our son as much as she could. The interviewers literally laughed.

After she interviewed we were snacking on refreshments in the gym when someone came and asked if she was the one looking for a part-time job. “We are trying this new program…” This time, we laughed as my wife took a part time position she would hold for the next couple of years.

Leading to that day, my wife struggled with even wanting to go interview, knowing the odds were stacked against her. We prayed about it and resolved that God could do anything and that we would be blessed so long as our priorities remain Him and our family over jobs and finances. We knew we would somehow be blessed whether she got a job or not.

They laughed. Sarah laughed. Now we can look back and laugh too. God is not so small that he cannot do the impossible in our lives.

How have you seen God do the impossible?

Torn apart

Frank

One of the biggest movie hits over the holiday break has been “Little Fockers” the third in a series of movies offering a comedic spin on typical dysfunction. I haven’t seen it yet, but if it follows the theme of the first two, it is likely filled with Greg Focker (Ben Stiller) bumbling around making a fool of himself trying to please his in-laws. What makes these movies so funny is that we all relate in some way. Truth is, we all have a little dysfunction.

Our quirks, our pet-peeves, our habits all rub someone the wrong way. Our loved ones have learned to put up with them, strangers may judge us by them. No one is perfect. But we have this nasty habit of focusing on ourselves, so someone else’s peccadillo become more pronounced when related to our own. Grudges build. Differences divide. Until suddenly the relationship is considered “irreconcilable” and the relationship ends.

Too many relationships this time of year end in such a way. Two couples close to us are ending their marriages this season, two others are on the verge. This isn’t unusual. In fact, the holiday season sees one of two annual peaks in divorces and breakups according to a recent study. I can see why, the stresses of the holiday season, the prospects of the coming year, the romanticized image of ringing in the New Year in slow motion surrounded by music, champagne in hand, and a kiss from a beautiful person you just met.

But the long term effects are devastating. There’s the holiday shuffle, where you shuttle between families on Christmas Day to visit each of your divorced parents, in-laws, and new step families as they each fight over who gets the prime times of opening presents first thing in the morning or having dinner in the evening. Kids bounce from home to home on weekends, holidays, and birthdays to the point of not being able to identify which is truly “home”.

Another consequence is that the cycle repeats. One of the couples we know getting a divorce right now has parents who are divorced. Single moms beget future single moms. Teenage parents often become grandparents by their 40s.

I’m not intending to cast stones here. But highlight the reality of the world in which we temporarily live. Family struggles, dysfunction and division add another stressor to an already crushing season. It is a reality for many of us, yet we must persevere through into the next season of our lives.

“Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.” (Mark 10:9)

Flashback Friday: Fast

Frank

***Originally posted on March 25, 2010. This has been heavy on my heart lately, stirred by Andrea Stasyszen’s post last week. The couple mentioned below has another hearing on the 18th. We pray it is the last. The couple mentioned later that adopted embryos just had a baby boy, 100% naturally, a week ago.***

I fasted yesterday. I donā€™t say that to boast, but rather to note that I donā€™t do it often. Maybe not often enough. But yesterday was too important not to. Some friends of ours had a court date over the custody of their adopted nine month-old daughter.

Since she was only two days old, this couple with two older boys, also adopted, has been the only family sheā€™s known. Her birth mother had no objection to giving her up for adoption (having lost custody before to other children). And the birth father was unaware the mother was even pregnant. But that was then. Once the father did find out, he wanted to be involved, and has been fighting ever since. I donā€™t know anything about either parent other than that. But I do know the family that is on the verge of being ripped apart.

Thereā€™s nothing special about this court date. Theyā€™ve had others and theyā€™ll likely have more. But our friends are tired. The weight of legal fees is multiplied by the economy reducing his hours and cutting her job. Tuesday they put their house on the market, unable to bear that additional weight. So my wife and I fasted yesterday. Only God knows what is best for this precious girl. But the prayer is for this just to be over.

My wife and I are especially sensitive to this. Both of us were adopted. Both under very different circumstances. In addition to these friends of ours, other couples weā€™re close to have adopted from China and have even adopted embryos. One of our good friends is a social worker for the Department of Child and Family Services. My wife teaches half-time [now back to full time] in an ā€œalternativeā€ school, a PC way of saying her school is one step away from Juvie. She teaches the other half at an ā€œurbanā€ school (inner-city wouldnā€™t accurately describe it because of geography, but urban certainly describes its demographics) that will permanently close its doors at the end of the school year. [side note: a 14 year-old would-be freshman girl and student at this school last year was just killed in a drive-by early Sunday morning, right around the corner from a park my church met at to reach out two weeks ago] So you might say weā€™re on the front lines of this battle for the health and welfare of these children.

It is the children who are at stake. I pray this baby girl has no recollection of this tug-of-war ever happening. I pray she never has to know. But I also pray that the bonding that has happened over the past year, that is so important developmentally, is not all for naught.

It is the children who are at stake. Tuesday I wrote about the faithfulness of God in context of the infidelity we see too frequently in our headlines. In each of these cases, Jesse James, Tiger Woods, John Edwards, children are sired and then transformed into gotcha headlines or publicity stunts. The media creates permanent memorials that will haunt these children the rest of their lives.

It is the children who are at stake. Every day a child is given up, either with the hope of a better life or out of despair of present circumstance, opposite sides to the same coin. Every day a child is born into a single-parent home. Boys raised without any father figures other than elder leadership in the neighborhood gang. Girls raised without the bonding they need to value their bodies so they spend the rest of their lives seeking that affirmation in any and every way.

It is the children who are at stake. The decisions we make. The relationships we have. The love we either share or willfully withhold. Abuse, either physical or verbal, and neglect or unavailability leave scars that do not heal.

It is the children who are at stake. Thank you JoAnne Bennett and Jeff Jordon [and also Andrea Stasyszen] for your battles to remind us. Thank you Lord for hearing our prayers. Thank you El Roi for seeing the need and answering our prayers by giving us clear instruction of what we must do to stop this cycle from repeating as it has for countless generations.

Learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow. (Isaiah 1:17)

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. (James 1:27)

Thrill Ride

Frank

Last weekend I took my family to Legoland. My son has been asking for it all summer and we waited for Grandma to come and visit so she could join in on the fun. The park is definitely geared towards my son’s age group (a lot of rides specifically said “ages 5-12). It was fun to see my son react with, “look, dad, it’s made of all Legos!” There’s just something about being little where the world seems so big. Theme parks take advantage of this by presenting everything as larger than life.

I remember going to Disney World at 5 or 6 years old and combining that trip with a visit to Kennedy Space Center. At Disney I remember Mission to Mars vividly- the chairs raising slightly to give you a feeling of positive g’s then dropping back to give you a sensation of weightlessness all while looking up at a giant screen of space images as if we were looking ahead through a window. Visiting Kennedy right after, I remember returning to school convinced I had been to space. I couldn’t wait to raise my hand to answer the question, “where did you go this summer?”

“As he was leaving the temple, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Look, Teacher! What massive stones! What magnificent buildings!‘” (Mark 13:1)

Did you visit any theme parks as a child? What rides were “larger than life”?

Of course, seeing it later as a teenager (the ride sadly closed in 1993), I could see through the “smoke and mirrors”. It was obvious we never left the ground and the view out of the windows could not compare to what we could see in an IMAX.

Other rides seemed smaller, too. The roller-coasters weren’t as fast, the loops, twists, and turns not as large. The animatronics weren’t as realistic. I grew up and the “thrill ride” was no longer as thrilling.

“When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.” (1 Corinthians 13:11)

Have you ridden any of your favorite rides from your youth since you’ve grown up? Are they as fast, as large as you remember?

As a parent, the thrill is no longer found in the rides, but in my children’s joy. I can bear (usually) waiting in line for an hour for a ride my kids are excited for. I can handle two days at Legoland and (mostly) ignore how cheesy everything is. Because it’s not for me.

I stood back in wonder as I watched my children met a life-sized Mickey Mouse. I anxiously wait to hear what my son thought of the last ride he went on. And I can’t wait to return. Their perspective becomes my perspective.

“And he said: ‘I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.’” (Matthew 18:3)

“From the lips of children and infants
you have ordained praise ” (Psalm 8:2)

Do you have children? Have you ever taken them to a theme park? What was their reaction the first time?

As adults, our lives can easily become so hectic that we take the thrills in life for granted. We feel grown up so we stop having fun. Summer is a great time to recapture the simple joys in life, but it’s also a good time to remember that Jesus “came that [you] may have life, and have it to the full.” (John 10:10) That scripture can be twisted a number of ways, from a Prosperity Gospel (full means rich!) to asceticism (full life doesn’t come until our resurrection and the world offers nothing). I believe the answer lies in the middle. No, we shouldn’t get too comfortable here on this Earth, but we should still find joy in the life God has blessed us with.

“Be joyful always” (1 Thessalonians 5:16)

Do you see your life today as a thrill ride? Do you believe Jesus has given you “life to the full”?

Yesterday I went to the park with my kids. I rode on a twisting swing-like thingy with my son. It wasn’t fast and it wasn’t large, but my son was scared to death of falling off and I almost threw up. But it was really fun!

Today continues this summer’s ‘virtual small group’ (VSG in the tags). I hope you come back as I take this season to reflect on the wonders of God’s creation, share vacation stories, etc, with the prayer that we come out of this season closer to God than how we came into it.

Memories

Frank

In conversations and in the comments from yesterday’s blog, just about everyone would grab pictures if their home was threatened with fire. Why is that so? Are our memories that bad?

I know my memory neglects the little things while honing in on major events or milestones. So pictures remind us of the moment the picture was taken, inconsequential or momentous. They capture the instant of a smile, of a word, of joy expressed however briefly.

“…do this in remembrance of me.” (Luke 22:19)

How many photo albums do you have?

How often do you pull them out?

What’s your favorite picture?

Jesus told his disciples to remember the Last Supper in the above passage. At the time, it was just another Passover dinner. Another time hanging out with Jesus. They didn’t know what was about to come, but Jesus did. Jesus also knew that his disciples, when looking back, would likely remember the major events (the trial, the carrying of the cross, the crucifixion, and of course the resurrection) but would struggle to remember the individual conversations from that last night.

“Then they remembered his words.” (Luke 24:8)

What one major event will you always remember, as long as you live?

Do you remember the dinner the night before that event?

When we take vacations in the summer, one of the goals of course is to get a break and have some fun. But it is more about the memories. As kids we have no idea the stress our parents feel as they pack the bags and load the car. As adults we forget the simple joy of our children getting to go someplace new.

I remember as a kid taking a road trip from my home in central Wyoming down to Phoenix to visit family. I remember playing games on the road, fighting with my sister over who got to sleep on the seat and who had to sleep on the floorboard (this was before car seats and seat belt laws), and collecting every menu, matchbook, and postcard we could find along our route to scrapbook our journey. Of course, the scrapbook has long since been lost and specific details of the trip vague, but I remember having fun.

My favorite summer memories were the road trips I’d take with my grandma to visit her brother and his family. He was my favorite uncle who I loved for taking me fishing, spending the whole day on the water talking about everything and nothing. I treasured the time alone with my grandma over the hundreds of miles on the road. I relished the scenery. We had our traditional stops along the way- a specific restaurant for a hot roast beef sandwich, a certain diner for a milkshake. As I grew older, she even let me drive part of the way. Even after my uncle passed away, we continued the trip.

As I write, a million memories flood my mind. I remember other vacations, visiting my mom’s side of the family in Georgia. I remember trips to the beach, the hot sun, and the inevitable sunburns. As I wax nostalgic, tears well up in my eyes and my heart chokes up. And I admit that I couldn’t find a single picture from these trips if I tried.

“Be happy, young man, while you are young, and let your heart give you joy in the days of your youth. Follow the ways of your heart and whatever your eyes see.” (Ecclesiastes 11:9)

What is your favorite vacation memory from childhood?

As an adult, vacations take on a different meaning. Sure, we want to get away from the job, from the responsibilities of our home, from the daily grind in general. But with children, I want to create special memories for them. I want them to look back at their childhood as fondly as I do mine. And I want those special moments to be shared together as a family, united in joy.

My son is at an age where he loves to tell me about everything. He especially loves to ask, “do you remember…?” Everything is big to him. Everything keeps him in awe. His little sister is catching on, wanting to join in those conversations even though her memories aren’t as long. They both remember the trips, the rides at Disneyland, the camping, the beach as if they were everyday occurrences. They talk about them as if they were yesterday (in fact my son hasn’t yet learned to discern time, so everything that happened before today was “yesterday”). I pray we get to continue to build those memories as they grow older and our lives grow increasingly hectic.

“Remember your Creator
in the days of your youth,
before the days of trouble come
and the years approach when you will say,
‘I find no pleasure in them’- “ (Ecclesiastes 12:1)

What is your favorite vacation memory as an adult?

It’s amazing how memories were kept before the invention of photography. Imagine living without the hundreds of pictures stored on your hardrive. Memories were kept by telling stories and writing journals, being passed on through the generations. The Bible is a collection of such memories, passed along the same way. There are no pictures of Jesus, yet his disciples were commanded to remember him. “Remember” shows up 233 times in the Bible. It is as important today as it was then to remember God’s Covenant, to remember Jesus’ sacrifice, to remember “the sins of our youth”. If a fire were to destroy everything we own, all we are left with are our memories.

What will you remember?

Today continues this summer’s ‘virtual small group’ (VSG in the tags). I hope you come back as I take this season to reflect on the wonders of God’s creation, share vacation stories, etc, with the prayer that we come out of this season closer to God than how we came into it.

Fast

Frank

I fasted yesterday. I donā€™t say that to boast, but rather to note that I donā€™t do it often. Maybe not often enough. But yesterday was too important not to. Some friends of ours had a court date over the custody of their adopted nine month-old daughter.

Since she was only two days old, this couple with two older boys, also adopted, has been the only family sheā€™s known. Her birth mother had no objection to giving her up for adoption (having lost custody before to other children). And the birth father was unaware the mother was even pregnant. But that was then. Once the father did find out, he wanted to be involved, and has been fighting ever since. I donā€™t know anything about either parent other than that. But I do know the family that is on the verge of being ripped apart.

Thereā€™s nothing special about this court date. Theyā€™ve had others and theyā€™ll likely have more. But our friends are tired. The weight of legal fees is multiplied by the economy reducing his hours and cutting her job. Tuesday they put their house on the market, unable to bear that additional weight. So my wife and I fasted yesterday. Only God knows what is best for this precious girl. But the prayer is for this just to be over.

My wife and I are especially sensitive to this. Both of us were adopted. Both under very different circumstances. In addition to these friends of ours, other couples weā€™re close to have adopted from China and have even adopted embryos. One of our good friends is a social worker for the Department of Child and Family Services. My wife teaches half-time in an ā€œalternativeā€ school, a PC way of saying her school is one step away from Juvie. She teaches the other half at an ā€œurbanā€ school (inner-city wouldnā€™t accurately describe it because of geography, but urban certainly describes its demographics) that will permanently close its doors at the end of the school year. So you might say weā€™re on the front lines of this battle for the health and welfare of these children.

It is the children who are at stake. I pray this baby girl has no recollection of this tug-of-war ever happening. I pray she never has to know. But I also pray that the bonding that has happened over the past year, that is so important developmentally, is not all for naught.

It is the children who are at stake. Tuesday I wrote about the faithfulness of God in context of the infidelity we see too frequently in our headlines. In each of these cases, Jesse James, Tiger Woods, John Edwards, children are sired and then transformed into gotcha headlines or publicity stunts. The media creates permanent memorials that will haunt these children the rest of their lives.

It is the children who are at stake. Every day a child is given up, either with the hope of a better life or out of despair of present circumstance, opposite sides to the same coin. Every day a child is born into a single-parent home. Boys raised without any father figures other than elder leadership in the neighborhood gang. Girls raised without the bonding they need to value their bodies so they spend the rest of their lives seeking that affirmation in any and every way.

It is the children who are at stake. The decisions we make. The relationships we have. The love we either share or willfully withhold. Abuse, either physical or verbal, and neglect or unavailability leave scars that do not heal.

It is the children who are at stake. Thank you JoAnne Bennett and Jeff Jordon for your battles to remind us. Thank you Lord for hearing our prayers. Thank you El Roi for seeing the need and answering our prayers by giving us clear instruction of what we must do to stop this cycle from repeating as it has for countless generations.

Learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow. (Isaiah 1:17)

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. (James 1:27)

Fast

Frank

I fasted yesterday. I donā€™t say that to boast, but rather to note that I donā€™t do it often. Maybe not often enough. But yesterday was too important not to. Some friends of ours had a court date over the custody of their adopted nine month-old daughter.

Since she was only two days old, this couple with two older boys, also adopted, has been the only family sheā€™s known. Her birth mother had no objection to giving her up for adoption (having lost custody before to other children). And the birth father was unaware the mother was even pregnant. But that was then. Once the father did find out, he wanted to be involved, and has been fighting ever since. I donā€™t know anything about either parent other than that. But I do know the family that is on the verge of being ripped apart.

Thereā€™s nothing special about this court date. Theyā€™ve had others and theyā€™ll likely have more. But our friends are tired. The weight of legal fees is multiplied by the economy reducing his hours and cutting her job. Tuesday they put their house on the market, unable to bear that additional weight. So my wife and I fasted yesterday. Only God knows what is best for this precious girl. But the prayer is for this just to be over.

My wife and I are especially sensitive to this. Both of us were adopted. Both under very different circumstances. In addition to these friends of ours, other couples weā€™re close to have adopted from China and have even adopted embryos. One of our good friends is a social worker for the Department of Child and Family Services. My wife teaches half-time in an ā€œalternativeā€ school, a PC way of saying her school is one step away from Juvie. She teaches the other half at an ā€œurbanā€ school (inner-city wouldnā€™t accurately describe it because of geography, but urban certainly describes its demographics) that will permanently close its doors at the end of the school year. So you might say weā€™re on the front lines of this battle for the health and welfare of these children.

It is the children who are at stake. I pray this baby girl has no recollection of this tug-of-war ever happening. I pray she never has to know. But I also pray that the bonding that has happened over the past year, that is so important developmentally, is not all for naught.

It is the children who are at stake. Tuesday I wrote about the faithfulness of God in context of the infidelity we see too frequently in our headlines. In each of these cases, Jesse James, Tiger Woods, John Edwards, children are sired and then transformed into gotcha headlines or publicity stunts. The media creates permanent memorials that will haunt these children the rest of their lives.

It is the children who are at stake. Every day a child is given up, either with the hope of a better life or out of despair of present circumstance, opposite sides to the same coin. Every day a child is born into a single-parent home. Boys raised without any father figures other than elder leadership in the neighborhood gang. Girls raised without the bonding they need to value their bodies so they spend the rest of their lives seeking that affirmation in any and every way.

It is the children who are at stake. The decisions we make. The relationships we have. The love we either share or willfully withhold. Abuse, either physical or verbal, and neglect or unavailability leave scars that do not heal.

It is the children who are at stake. Thank you JoAnne Bennett and Jeff Jordon for your battles to remind us. Thank you Lord for hearing our prayers. Thank you El Roi for seeing the need and answering our prayers by giving us clear instruction of what we must do to stop this cycle from repeating as it has for countless generations.

Learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow. (Isaiah 1:17)

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. (James 1:27)

Such as These

Frank

Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” (Matthew 19:14)

“I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 18:3)

I’ve heard many interpretations of these passages on what qualities in children we should imitate: children are innocent in their hearts, children are mold-able, children need their father, and so on. I’ve always leaned most towards the need of a child for his or her father.

My son and I battle every night at bedtime. As I walk away he tells me that he’s scared. When I try and reassure him that his mom and I are right there on the other side of the wall he tells me, “but I can’t see you!” I started to relate that to our faith in God. We believe in him and trust in him even though we can’t see him. But that hasn’t worked.

So a couple of nights ago, we’re going through the usual routine and ensuing battle. Exasperated, I walk away as he cries about being afraid. Then he says something profound, “come hold my hand and pray.” I couldn’t resist.

My dad passed away 13 years ago. My son tells me I need to get a new one. I tell him that I have a perfect Father in heaven. I try and explain that God is like a Father to us. In fact, he’s the best Father there ever was.

He doesn’t yet buy it. And he is still scared when I turn away. He needs the comfort of knowing I am there. Like God, we can’t see him but there is comfort he is there. Yet he will hear us when we cry out to him.

Clouds will rage
And storms will race in
But you will be safe in my arms
-Plumb, In My Arms