A Closer Look at Your Father’s Love
By Mark Hayes, President of Ministry
“As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him.” (Psalm 103:13)
When we are kids, we often notice only the things our fathers would not let us do, or the things they called us out on that we didn’t think were that big of a deal. We did not always pay attention to the subtle kindnesses and compassion they showed us every day.
A short hike with a small child will highlight a few examples. A father carries his half pint for 1.8 miles of a two-mile hike because the poor child’s “legs hurt.” He then shares his water with his child because the child didn’t heed the reminder to bring his own water bottle. When they stop for ice cream afterward, the father replaces the child’s fallen ice cream cone with his own.
As adults, we possess similar childish views of our Father in Heaven. We become upset with the problems we face and become frustrated when our Father doesn’t give us what we want. Yet, he provides us with food on our tables and roofs over our heads.
On a larger scale, loving fathers provide care, protection, guidance, and love throughout life.
To put a price tag on the financial costs of raising a child, one study stated that from childhood to adulthood, parents spend $234,000 per child, not including college costs. God also identified the “price tag” for each of us—the blood of His only Son.
As fathers, we do not want to even imagine the grief of losing a child, but how much love and sacrifice would it take to give up your own child to save someone else? God does not ask that of fathers. He only asks that they nurture their children in knowing and believing in the deep love of their Father in Heaven and in the forgiveness He sacrificed everything to give them.
Prayer: Dear Father in heaven, thank you for making the unthinkable ultimate sacrifice to save all of us, your children. Thank you for providing fathers and caregivers who have provided for us physically and spiritually. Support them as they guide their children and young adults in the ways in which they should go, according to your will and close to your heart. Amen.