Happy Father’s Day, Dad

In the late 1800’s, the life of a young Civil War veteran’s wife faded as she gave birth to their sixth child. Widower William Smart raised his daughter and five sons on the family farm in the state of Washington with such devotion that, as an adult, his daughter began a campaign to honor all fathers.

In 1906, Sonora Louise Smart Dodd, then living in Spokane, discussed the idea with her pastor. She envisioned a day of special church services and children offering their fathers words of appreciation and small gifts. The city’s YMCA joined the sponsorship, and on the third Sunday of June 1910–the month of William Smart’s birthday–Father’s Day was first observed.

In 1916, President Woodrow Calvin Coolidge recommended its observance, but decades followed while others slowly joined in the effort to establish Father’s Day. During those years, wearing a red rose honored a living father, a white rose for one not living. Today we celebrate Father’s Day with backyard barbecues and gifts for our birth fathers, stepfathers, fathers-in-law, and grandfathers.

This is all as it should be! However, this year as we honor the fathers in our lives, let’s remember the most wonderful Father of all–our heavenly Father. The One whose abundant love is always the same.The One who never tires of watching over us and providing for our needs. He who, when we stray, never stops wooing us back to him. More than all that, he is the Father who made the way at great personal price–the willing death of his Son on the cross–that we might be his children.

Focus: “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called the children of God!” ~ 1 John 3:1, New International Version.

How About You? How many fathers do you honor on Father’s Day, and how do you choose to do it?

(This blog post is adapted from a June 1999 piece published by Together in Faith in my ten-year column, Love With Shoes On.)

Love and Faithfulness at Work

Chee! Chee!

A piercing distress call pulled my attention to an area of the parking lot where three little girls giggled. Their father drew them away from the mother bird. As others walked by her nest, the beautiful killdeer spread her wings and puffed up her feathers in a protective bluff.

A few feet away, I looked among the rounded decorative stones where she stood guard. Sure enough. She had laid a clutch of eggs, almost invisible in their surroundings. Settling back on her eggs, she also became nearly invisible.

As the weeks went by, intruders frustrated her efforts to see to the safety of her eggs. Severe thunderstorms battered her. Yet nothing could drive her away. Nothing could pressure her into abandoning her special work. Because of her faithful love, four baby killdeer came into the world. She continued vigil over them until they were ready to go out in this world on their own. Once again, she had completed God’s plan for that season of her life.

When Jesus entered public ministry, no doubt he felt battered, too. His mother and brothers heard how he worked day and night with barely time to eat or sleep. Worried about him, they arrived to take him home. Instead he continued his ministry to the poor and needy. Important religious leaders scorned him, tried to trick him, insulted him and plotted to kill him. Yet he refused to run and hide.

When he told his closest friends that he would be betrayed and die on a cross at Jerusalem, they didn’t understand. One tried to talk him out of it, but no one could drive him off course. Nothing could pressure him into abandoning the special work he had come to do.

With all the faithful love in his heart, he held true to God’s plan to pay the penalty for the sins of all mankind. He knew that, only through his death on the cross would we ever know the blessing of eternity in heaven with God. God, who loves us more than we could think or imagine.

When life batters us, we have a choice. We can yield to well-meaning arguments. We can run and hide. Or we can refuse to be pressured off course. Instead, we can pray for the strength to be a blessing and hold true to God’s plan for this particular season of our lives.

Focus: “Let love and faithfulness never leave you.” ~ Proverbs 3:3, New International Version.

How about you? Like that little mother killdeer, are you struggling—or have you struggled–with a particular season in your life?

(This blog post is adapted from a June 2005 piece published by Together in Faith in my ten-year column, Love With Shoes On.)