Grace trips
There are three things that Dad will never say: 1) Well, how about that! I’m lost. Looks like we’ll have to stop and ask for directions. 2) What do you want to go and get a job for? I make plenty of money for you to spend. 3) Father’s Day? Ah, don’t worry about that. It’s no big deal!
I thank those “Island” restaurants for wanting to make Father’s Day a big deal by advertising “Treat your Dad at one of these fine restaurants for Father’s Day!” That’s a lot better than wrinkled shorts and cologne sets that didn’t move at Christmas! Well, Father’s Day is a big deal, especially when we recognize fathers who love their children by giving them examples of loving their mothers and who seek to live their lives by Christ’s commands.
A group of first graders was asked to draw a picture of God in their Sunday School class. One child depicted God in the form of a brightly colored rainbow. Another child portrayed her daddy as Superman. Another boy said: “I didn’t know what God looked like, so I just drew a picture of my daddy.”
I wish every little girl and every little boy could see God in her or his father. Unfortunately that doesn’t always happen. The bumper sticker reminds us that some “Fathers” like “mothers” are travel agents for guilt trips.”
In place of “guilt trips” God would like us to arrange for “grace trips.” In order to do so, everyone should resurrect the unconditional loving Father God in our lives by understanding that while God has the right to exercise naked authority and punish any and all disobedience, “He while we were yet sinners sent His only Son to redeem the world” (Roms. 5:8).
His father says: “Calvin, when Lincoln was your age, do you know what he was doing?” Calvin replies: “No Dad, I don’t. But I know what he was doing when he was your age.”
A “grace trip” father would not respond with something like: “Calvin, don’t sass your father, now get to your room and stay there until I tell you that you can come out!” A “grace trip” father understands that passionate patience without impertinence produces love and growth.
Rembrandt’s painting entitled “The Return of the Prodigal Son” depicts a figure representing God the loving Father as blind. He sees His son not with his eyes but with his heart to which he is tenderly holding the son’s head. In addition, the Father God has one male hand pulling the wayward son to him, and one female hand caressing the son’s back. The painting invites us to participate as mothers and fathers in God’s all-embracing, all-forgiving, caressing, compassionate, unconditional “grace trip” love.
This week, let us also say: “Happy Father’s Day, God! We thank you for your Father’s “grace trip” love that gracefully says: “though you sins are many they are forgiven (Lk. 7:47) and because of your faith in Christ you are God’s children and heirs of His Kingdom” (Gal. 3:26, 29).