Fathers

Thankful for my father today, thankful to be a father and especially thankful for my heavenly Father, the Father of lights, from whom every good and perfect gift comes (James 1:17). I share a poignant excerpt about fatherhood from Margie Haack. Margie's father was killed in an accident when she was still unborn; her stepfather did not love her:

"There is a mysterious sense in which a man who becomes the father of a child - natural or surrogate, it doesn't matter - he participates in the shaping of that child's image of a God who claims to be Father of us all. It's mysterious because we waken in this world longing for the hands of a father that will not only lead us safely down dark paths past rabid skunks, but love us, tenderly enfold us. The ache may lie dormant for years or may never be spoken, and yet any child whose father has left or was never there, is familiar with those aches. Where do they come from - these desires for fathers who never leave?"

The Exact Place: A Memoir, p. 180