Daddy and DAD

A Tribute to my Daddy on Father's Day

I am in the process of reading a book by Francis Chan, Crazy Love. This book is about the God of our universe, our Creator. The one that loves us with a "radical, unconditional, self-sacrificing love. It is about how God is calling us to a "passionate love relationship" with him. Because, when we are "wildly in love with someone", it changes everything.

When Jesus was asked, "What is the greatest commandment?" he responded with "love."

What does this have to do with Father's Day? One section in the book is entitled:

dad and DAD

The most loving, most trusting, most caring relationship I have ever been a part of was with my Daddy. No other relationship can compare to what I shared with him. In my eyes he hung the moon and stars.........just for me. When he died in 1989, a part of me died with him. At first, all of me wanted to go with him. The only thing that kept me sane during those first days, weeks, months, and years, was my love for my own child, Krisha. I needed my Daddy, but I also needed to be a mother to Krisha.

In Crazy Love, Chan writes about his experience with his dad before he died, which was not a very loving and nuturing relationship. It was only after having children of his own that he got a taste of what God feels toward us. Just as my Daddy wanted for me, Chan wanted to give his little girl the world.

I feel the same as Chan wrote about in the book, I realize how much my Daddy loved me, and how much I love Krisha, but that is only a faint echo of God's great love for us. So, as Chan states, "how could I not trust a heavenly, perfect Father who loves me infinitely more than I will ever love my kids?"

"If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!" Matthew 7:11

My Heavenly "Dad" knows me, "deeply and specifically." He knows my thoughts, before I think them. He knows my actions, before I commit them. He knows who I am and what I am about.

To my earthly Daddy I might have been considered an "accident" when he found out I was on the way. However, my heavenly Dad knew me before he made me. He has been with me from the start, even before the start. As Chan writes, "My existence was not random, nor was it an accident. God knew who He was creating, and He designed me for a specific work."

"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you where born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations." Jeremiah 1: 5

I know that my Daddy wanted only the best for me. He gave up things so that I could have more. He did everything he could to see that I succeeded in life. Even during those times that I let him down, that I disappointed him, he still loved me unconditionally. And, because of the God I serve, my heavenly Dad, even when I don't meet his expectations," he still will ensure my success in accordance with His plan, not mine."

As Chan writes, "the fact is that nothing should concern us more than our relationship with God; it's about eternity, and nothing compares to that." Because of my Daddy's relationship with God, I know that he is not in a grave, but that he is spending eternity with our heavenly Father. With the help of the Holy Spirit in my life, I will continue to surrender to my heavenly Dad and have true intimacy with him, so that one day..............I will bow at his feet, along side my Daddy.

Happy Fathers Day!