This beautiful girl is nine months old. Nine months! Time goes fast. I can still remember writing the night before she was born. She is wonderful, silly, and happy all at the same time. The joy God gives me through her is priceless and words will never be able to articulate fully exactly what I mean. As you can imagine, since I am her father, I love her. Tears fill my eyes if I look at a picture like this or think of her for more than about ten seconds (not exaggerating there either). If I am sinful (which I am), and in no way am a perfect person or father, but I can love this girl that much, imagine how much God our Father who is perfect and sinless, loves us?
“See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.” (1 John 3:1)
We are children of God. For those of us who believe and have chosen to follow Christ, immediately our sins are forgiven and we are adopted as sons and daughters of the King. Adoption has nothing to do on the child’s part, but everything to do on the initiative and pursuit from the parents. In this case, it’s God taking the initiative and making a way for us to come to Him through His Son Jesus and what He did for us on the Cross.
Being that the Bible says we are children of God, we must trust this truth and remind ourselves daily that we have a loving Father who loves to lavish good gifts to His children. A Father who will provide every need we have. A Father who will protect us in all circumstances. A Father who has our best interest in mind in all areas. Even in moments we can doubt our Father or be frustrated with the way life is turning out for us, we must remember and believe God is still good.
I am not always going to get things right with Peyton. I know for a fact I am not. She may only be nine months now, but soon she’ll be in kindergarden, junior high, graduating, getting married, having kids, and maybe even taking care of me, haha. Over the course of her life I will indeed make many mistakes and she will see her Daddy is not perfect by any stretch of the imagination. My hope is that she will know at the end of the day, that I love her and would do anything for her. That even if I disagree with her choices in life, I will still stand by her side…she is my daughter. Most importantly, that I can point her to Jesus in all circumstances. That I can teach her about our heavenly Father, who is perfect.
My encouragement for you whether today is Father’s Day or not is to think on the great love our heavenly Father has for us. For anyone in tough situations with their fathers, I am sorry. There is no way I can relate with you 100 percent, but what I can do is point you to Jesus. I can point you to the greatest Father. Maybe take this time to pray for all fathers out there (including your own). Pray that they draw closer to God or decide to follow Christ (if they are non-believers). Pray for reconciliation between family members (and maybe your own family). Pray for forgiveness to spread like wildfire out of the gratitude and motivation that God has forgiven us through Christ and if God forgives us, surely we can forgive others.
God loves us. Our Father loves us. He loves being with us, spending time with us, watching us smile, hearing us laugh, witnessing us learning something new for the first time. He loves leading us as we grow to be the son or daughter He calls us to be. He loves us so much, He sent His own Son for us, to die for us, to save us. Let’s make much of Him. Let’s be reminded of the kind of love the Father has given to us. Let’s remember we are the children of God and have been adopted into His Family.
“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” – James 1:17
