Acknowledging that God has no gender and with respect and sensitivity to those who prefer not to use male metaphors for talking about God, I’d like to offer a few thoughts about God on this Father’s Day weekend. (I have no doubt that everything I’m about to say could have been said on Mother’s Day too…I just didn’t think of it then and, being a father myself, these thoughts come more naturally to me!)
So what do we try to do on Father’s Day?
- We try to show our dads that we appreciate them.
- We treat them like a king (when I was a kid, we used to make a “crown” for my dad to wear on Father’s Day!).
- We express our love and gratitude for their steadfast love and protection.
- We present our dads with gifts to express this love and gratitude.
- We try to spend time with him and listen to him perhaps more than we do on other days.
- We just enjoy being in his presence on this day.
There was no “father’s day” in Jesus’ time, but respect and honor for one’s father was (and is) ingrained in Jewish culture. When Jesus spoke of God as “Father” and taught us to pray “Our Father,” he knew that this metaphor would be understandable for us and would help us to relate to God.
If any of us are wondering just how to approach God or how to teach others to approach God, just take my list of things we do on Father’s Day from the paragraph above and apply it to God and strive to do those things 365 days a year.
On this Father’s Day weekend, I honor and give praise to Our Father in heaven. I honor my own Dad who passed away almost 10 years ago…love ya, Dad and miss you! I offer my sincerest wishes to all fathers that you know how much you are appreciated and needed and I pray that you and I will continue to learn from God our Father and from St. Joseph, Jesus’ earthly father, what it means to be a loving and faithful father.
Happy Father’s Day to all dads, grandfathers, godfathers, and all who are like-a-dad to someone else!
That was excellent!!! It couldn’t have been said any better.