Father's Day 2010

One of the blessings of being a follower of Christ is you get two fathers. The first father is your earthly father. Earthly father's come in all shapes and sizes. Some earthly father's do their job well and represent another Father almost perfectly, while other earthly fathers fail completely. Thankfully, the second father a follower of Christ has is God the Father, the first Person of the Trinity, and He never fails and always goes above and beyond any human being's expectations. In either rain, sleet, or snow God the Father is always the same and always meeting the Fatherly mark perfectly. He always wants what's best for His children without fail and cares about them with an unconditional, perfect, mysterious love.

This Father's Day, I have chosen to write a blog article about and to both of my dad's- the One in heaven and the one on earth who have helped me become the woman I am today.

Dad on Earth
Well, Dad, another father's day is here! I want to thank you for being a good dad. It can be hard to be an earthly dad because you do not have the divine qualities like omnipotence and omniscience that my Heavenly Dad has and you also have your own flaws that can sometimes get in the way. Nevertheless you were a good father, in spite of your human limitations, and positively contributed to me being the woman I am today. Even though some of your methods seemed harsh at times, I know you always wanted what was best for me and my siblings. You always reminded us how much you loved us and most importantly you introduced us to our Father in heaven.

Thank you for making sure we were brought up in the Church and for making sure you introduced us to Jesus Christ. I am always humbled by how you depend on God to get through your day in spite of the hardships that life can throw at all of us. I hope and pray that you continue down this path of godliness, in order to shine God's life to the people in your apartment building, the people you encounter on the streets of Charlottetown PEI, and to the people you interact with when you run.

Dad in Heaven
It's amazing. No matter how many times I think that I know all there is to know about You, You surprise me. For example, I read yesterday from Hosea 11:1-11 that You often undergo internal conflicts when it comes to your wayward people on earth. The battle between divine justice and divine love is a mysterious thing that goes on inside you-- you know you need to punish sin but you want to punish them but you want to show mercy, forgiveness, and compassion. By "them" I am referring to the Israelites, God's chosen people who  repeatedly ditch God to follow other deities over and over and over and over and over and over again in the Old Testament.God loves people more than God hates sin and wants to show us mercy and forgiveness. Yet time and time again we walk away and shake our fists at Him and go serve idols. This is even true about people who are followers of Christ.

Makes me wonder sometimes who is more persistent- human beings who persistently rebel against God or God who lovingly and persistently chases after human beings! This is one of a number of reasons why I want to study theology and biblical studies! God is the perfect thing/Person/Being  to study for the rest of one's life if you ask me, but that is how God designed me. Another amazing thing about our Heavenly Father is that He is a diverse God, otherwise He would not make such diverse people!  If there is anything God DID NOT create in our world, it is normal.  There are no "normal people", there are unique individuals. God created individuals and He created individuals to have a relationship with him and to live in fellowship with one another. Wow.

God you are an awesome God! You trump every single other deity that ever tried to take Your place, especially all the Greek gods in Percy and the Olympians or whatever that film is called.

To my Dad in heaven and my Dad on earth: Happy Father's Day!!!