Blessing

Today is Father’s Day.  It has been 10 years since I was able to express Happy Father’s Day to my dad.  I enjoyed reading the tributes and greetings on Facebook this morning, and wondered what I might say.  I didn’t have an answer until church this morning.  We sang Matt Redman’s “Bless the Lord” and tears came to my eyes.  The words of this song are the same as the opening of Psalm 103.  Psalm 103 has been our “family psalm” for a few generations now.  I remember my Dad reading this to us every Thanksgiving and other special occasions throughout the year.  It was read at my mother’s memorial service.  My dad wasn’t perfect, but he loved his children greatly.  And he modeled for each of us a love for God and serving other people with whatever skills and gifts we may have available to us to use.  In other words, to bless the Lord and others. 

I have a son-in-law whose first Father’s Day is today.  K is bigger than life itself at times, full of joy, and also models that life of serving others and bringing them blessing upon blessing with the resources he has available.  He has already seen to it that his son, Jackson, has had his first train trip, doing his best to pass along his zest for life to his son.



I have a son who is not yet a father, but I believe he will be someday.  And I have no doubt that despite the poor fathering modeled by his own dad, he will follow hard after others who have fathered him into the man he is today.  The service at church ended today with more tears for me, because of this son’s choice of a wedding song, “Beautiful Things.”  It is impossible for me to hear this song any more without tears and remembering the look in his eyes as he adored his bride walking towards him to the words of this song...a beautiful moment that I will treasure always. 

I now have a husband who loves his own kids as well as mine, and our grandsons.  He is fathering my youngest son on a daily basis these days, something that I trust will bode D will when he marries and has children someday.  By the way, D told me yesterday that he wants me to find him a wife just like Pioneer Woman.  I guess I have my work cut out for me.

Because of my husband, I have two new fathers of the next generation in my life, fathers of 3 of our grandsons.  Both of these men are highly involved in their young son’s lives.  R is in the ministry, which is a very time consuming life’s work, but he invests heavily in his wife and children.  They are his first ministry.  E works hard to provide for his family, and it is clear that he is K’s favorite man.  The bond that E is building between the two of them is priceless.

I am thankful for the father’s I have in my life – my own, the ones who have stepped in to father my children, the father’s of our next generation – and even the father of my children.  For without him, they would not be here.  Some would say he was only a sperm donor, and I get that, but the best thing he ever did was to give me the four children I have had the privilege to love and enjoy.  So for that I am thankful.

 

I’m glad God thought of fathers.  I have been blessed by them my entire life.  So it is with genuine gratitude that I wish all of them a very happy Father’s Day.

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