From any rational perspective, it is truly beyond understanding that the infinite God of heaven would condescend to identify Himself with us…and allow Himself to be identified in return by our faulty perceptions. Yet He has designed the human family to be the incubator for both human life and spiritual life. Home is the schoolroom for knowing Him, drawing the dotted lines from our experience to who He is.
Children’s earliest perceptions of God are formed by their experiences with dad. Like building blocks, a father’s love, his strength, and his weaknesses form often impressive, yet leaning towers that topple or are knocked down by our encounters with life. Even the best human fathers give their children imperfect, incomplete perceptions of a holy God.
We children know well our own need for forgiveness. But somehow we are stingy about sharing it with others, especially our fathers who failed us—as all fathers have.
May you refuse to keep the God who loves you with abandon confined to the limits of what you saw in any earthly father. And may you imitate your Father in heaven who in Jesus shows us how to forgive and then—inexplicably—to honor.
May you give the gift of honor, even if you feel it is undeserved, to your father this Father’s Day and all year, remembering Jesus died for all of us, all undeserving of His grace.
