The Father’s Love
This Sunday in the UK and many other countries, Father’s Day will be celebrated. For many it will be an opportunity to express appreciation for a good father, or an opportunity for some men to ponder that perhaps they didn’t do too bad a job. Sadly for far too many it will not be a good day as their experience of a father was painful. At times I have been aware of those who stayed away from church on Father's Day because of unhappy memories.
In my own life, Father's Day provides an opportunity for me to reflect on the love and support that our long-term foster son deserved, and still deserves as a middle aged man (we had no children of our own). Could I have done better? Wel, there is still a job to be done. It also calls me to reflect on my own father, who came back from WW2 rather traumatised and finding it difficult to bond with my brother who had grown up without him, having been born just before my father was called up.
The impact of the war on my father’s health made him a rather angry man. It was not until he experienced the baptism of the Holy Spirit, many years later, that he radically changed, and we developed a very special relationship. His final words to me, as he lay dying in a hospital bed was, “Barry, commit me to the Lord.” I took his hand and prayed with tears, giving thanks for all that God had done for him through his life, and praying for a deep sense of God’s presence and peace as he faced what were to be his last few hours. He spoke once more, this time to my mother as he took her hand and told her all was well.
Most of us move into adult life realising how little we understood of all that our parents have done for us. Being a parent brings joys but also many challenges. Jesus understood this, as is evident in the parable of the prodigal son (or should that be the parable of the loving father?).
How hard it must have been for the father to accede to the younger son's persistent badgering to get his hands on that for which he considered he was entitled. I suspect that, while he may have done some chores, he never really laboured with his father and older brother to grow the family’s wealth. But he was ready to spend it on ‘having a good time’. His father must have realised that it would be a terrible waste of hard earned money but, in accordance with the usual practise, one third of all that he had was turned into cash and he bade his sone farewell.
Clearly, he was not happy to see him go as Jesus informs us that the father saw his returning son even when he was some distance away, I get the feeling that he searched that horizon every day. But the alternative - forcing his son to stay home - would not have helped either of them. Love is costly. So it would have been in the heavens. Have you ever stopped to think how the heavenly Father felt as he watched over his Son through 33 years of life on earth. How did he feel as his Son pleaded with him to take away that cup of suffering, knowing that he could not do so if we were to be saved. While Jesus seems to have felt abandoned on the cross, I think that the hymn writer has got it wrong when he penned, “the Father turns his face away”.
And when the prodigal’s father saw his son coming home he ran to meet him. Words of regret and remorse were cut short by the father’s delight at his son’s return. He called for shoes, a robe and a ring. They were not a reward for coming back home; they were tokens of the father’s unconditional love. Doesn’t that make you want to weep and share in the hug that must have lasted a long time.
“This son of yours” was how the older son defined his brother. Not much love there for the moment! But there is no hint of anger at his elder son’s shortsightedness. Instead he reminds him that “all I have is yours”. This father just keeps on giving. This time giving words of loving assurance and gentle correction.
Our Online Bible Study on Tuesday evenings has been working through Ephesians. Last week we came to chapter 3: 14-24. Here, Paul prays for the Christians in Ephesus to experience and engage with God’s love. The language is extravagant, but he makes his request to a heavenly Father who has great riches of love and extraordinary generosity. Almost as a passing comment Paul states that to understand what family life is meant to be we need to understand the nature of the fatherhood of God. Now, that’s something to celebrate this Father’s Day.
Barry - 21 June 2020
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