Dear Trekker,

A “Father’s Day Week” has just concluded as I sit down to write my monthly “Passing the Baton.” As I reflect back, a couple of things are definitely front and center. I want to tell you about them.

First, last Monday, I had a real “first” in my life. What a start of “Father’s Week.” Barbara suggested we go to the golf course. I play, she rides in the cart, and together we enjoy the Colorado sunshine. This was the third golf outing since my heart attack last December. Only “this” day was to be different! On the fifth hole, a par three, hitting directly into the sun above the Rockies to the west, I hit a “good ball,” but I could not see it in the sun. I asked Barb if she saw it and she said, “No, I couldn’t see it in the sun, either.” As we approached the green, I could see no ball. Not on the green, or on the fairway, or over the green. A lake is just to the left of the green, but I knew I had hit it “on line.” Well, I say to Barbara, “There is a saying in golf, if you can’t find your ball, look in the cup.” I have done this scores of times! But today, as I peered down into the cup, there was my golf ball staring up at me… smiling! I had my first hole-in-one after playing golf for 75 years. No one to celebrate with… just friend wife and me! I have thought, “It will never happen.” Oh, I’ve been close. But, “close” is not a “hole in one!”

Well, okay Jim, what does this have to do with “Fathering?” I say plenty (though you may disagree)! Let me be blunt. There is not a moment in our lives that God is not available and yearning to bless us, His children. Every moment He treasures us! God, who is above and beyond time and space, lives “in the moment.” He is certainly thinking of us, loving us, providing for us, redeeming us, empowering us, etc. Wow, what a Heavenly Father! Last Monday, God wanted to bless me (and Barbara, my sweetheart and mother of our children) by giving me a hole-in-one. We couldn’t “see it.” He just did it, and we saw the result. I say “cool!”

The second occurrence…I have a grand-nephew who is a terrific Dad! A couple of years ago he did a very Fatherly thing! He came up with a family mission statement for his family…We will: “1) love well, 2) serve others, and 3) treasure the moment.” His wife memorialized these in wall plaques. This is who we are and strive to be! Wow, what a Dad moment! I was again impressed and blessed!

When I told friend wife what I was writing about this month, she nailed it, “Well, darling, if one wants to be a good father, he need look no farther than our Heavenly Father!” I said, “You are so right, darling! So trekker, let’s look at God this Father’s Day remembrance. Yes, Father’s Day is over, but not really. We are always a Dad, once a Dad, so long as we live…just like God is a Father forever.

Turn with me to Luke 15, so well known and loved. (Read all of Luke 15 now, trekker,) We know this as the story of “the prodigal son.” Oddly, it is not the story of the prodigal son, but of the “prodigal Father.” He lavishes upon the son who returns home. Everything He can give the son in celebration, He does. The father is the hero, not the son. This story is primarily about a Father’s unconditional love for his son, not a son’s wayward action in sin.

A theme (I would say the theme of the Scriptures, particularly the New Testament) is to recount God’s love for His children:

1) He created “us” for Himself. He is Father! He was not obliged to create us at all. He chose to create the universe and us all.

2) He chose to forgive us, to redeem us, when we walked away from Him as if we know more about running our lives than He did/does.

3) This scenario He carried out by becoming man, dying for us, raising Jesus from the dead, giving us His Spirit that we might live “His Life,” be “Jesus with skin on” and “be a good father,” in the case of us known as “males.”

The story of the wayward son doing his own thing and the prodigal Father, ever loving patiently and understandably, is a perfect metaphor for the nature of fatherhood, as embodied in God Himself. True fathers wait and watch and pray for their children who are “a long way off.” The father forgives and celebrates just like God does with us through the death of Christ. God accepts us as if we were never “lost,” as did the father in the parable story. Trekker, if we are to be “a good father,” we must pattern our lifestyle and behavior after the prodigal Father in the “story of stories.” (And who does not want to be a good father?)

Let’s notice what the prodigal Father teaches us:

1) We must not “over correct” our sons and daughters. Lessons learned “the hard way” are lasting, life-changing lessons! He knew his son was “wrong,” but he also knew the son had to learn this for himself.

2) We must believe that “lessons learned the hard way,” with a dose of conviction by the Holy Spirit after we’ve prayed for our son (or daughter), will bring our children “around” and back to us (and to  God).

3) As in the story, when “he came to himself (v. 17),” came to his senses, he was on the way back home! God believes in us “finding our way!” We must believe in our children and give them space and time for the journey, even to transgress and trespass beneficent boundaries. We must believe in the “goodness” of our children, that they will return to Him (and us) in time. I have seen this in the lives of my children and grandchildren. God knows that often we will return to Him when we come to our senses! And as a corollary, we are never ourselves until we return home to God.

Well, trekker, how do we become like the prodigal Father? We’ve got to: 1) know him, 2) love him, and 3) copy him! We need His nature within us! Inspiring us, moving us forward! The apple should not fall far from the tree…ever. This is best described in John 15. Jesus is speaking: “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes so that it will be more fruitful (v. 1 & 2 ). Then, v. 6 & 7…“If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch   that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me, and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be given you.”

Trekker, if we remain in Jesus, and He in us, we are on the road to being good fathers. It is all right there in the story of the prodigal Father. Let’s live His story!

Your fellow father friend,

Jim Meredith