A Father

Growing up in Colorado provides me many great memories. Memories of gazing out to thousands of stars on a clear dark night. Memories living out in the country, getting coal for the fireplace in 3 feet of snow. Walking home a mile through the wheat fields from my school. Strasburg Colorado was a great place to grow up.

We moved there from a suburb of Denver when I was in second grade. The reason we moved to a small country town was because of my father. See, it was my dad that had a vision of raising his family out in the country away from city life. So he set to doing what good fathers do, they make a way.

For a little over a year my father would take the hour long trip out to Strasburg each day to start the process of building our families new home. Sometimes we would stay the entire week or just for the weekend. I do remember him being gone a lot. Over that year he would lay the foundation of the home, dig the well, erect the frame of the house and install electrical, plumbing, drywall, fixtures, flooring ….you name it he did it with little help from outside contractors.

Being the age I was (about 6 years old) I don’t remember much, just that he was gone a lot. I do remember a few vague memories of me going out to help him build the house but I was so limited in what I could do, I most likely hurt the process more than helped.

Then the day came, the day we packed up our belongings and moved the family to Strasburg. That moved changed our lives and I believe was one of the best decisions my father made. Still, it was a great sacrifice and it also took its toll on the family. I remember hearing my dad and mom fight about this house and the move to Strasburg frequently.

Why did it take such a toll? Well because it’s a monumental task to build an entire single family home by yourself. Those extended trips meant he had to live in a small camping travel trailer and on those cold Colorado nights, away from his family, I know it was tough. Achieving this goal revealed his limits as an earthly father.

I as well as my dad and every other earthly father have limits. Some of those limits might have been destructive, others might have been circumstantial, but in the end as great as our dads were they failed us at some point. I think that is why at an early age I learned to look to my Everlasting Father. Where I felt my earthly father fell short, I would reach out to my Heavenly Father. He taught me things about life and about myself that I could have never learned being a spiritual orphan.

Spiritually many people let their earthly father experience to taint their heavenly father experience and the end result is a sea of spiritually orphaned individuals that know little to nothing about how much God loves them! They tend to carry little hope in their future and often wander around aimlessly, looking for meaning to each day. Instead God, our Heavenly Father, made a sacrifice that cost Him the Son but instead of showing His limits it showed that He is limitless as a father.

Because of that I encourage you to let down your guard and be received today into the arms of the Father. Will you say this prayer with me today?

“Heavenly Father I want to be received into your arms today as a loving father would care for his only child. I admit I have let my disappointments and pain of being a child of an earthly father separate me away from what love you desire to shower over me. Please forgive me of my sin and draw me close to you today. I want to know you more than I ever have before and not have anything stand between us. I confess Jesus as my savior and my Lord and in His sacrifice I am saved. Now I want to live as you planned long ago for me to live. Full of confidence that I have a wonderful father always taking care of me. In Jesus name---Amen!”

“…that we might receive adoption to sonship. Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba,Father.” So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.” (Galatians 4:5-7)