A Prayer to a Good Father

Dear Father in Heaven,

That’s a strange concept to me. A heavenly father. Who are you, and how can you love me like a father loves his child when there are 7.5 billion people in the world today? People you want as your children?

You require holiness, but I am so unholy.
You created me, yet I complain about this creation. (Why did you design bodies to change with age???)
You have compassion and patience with me, even though I fail the same faith tests repeatedly.
You are probably annoyed with my whining and entitlement, yet you don’t lose your temper or say things you shouldn’t.

You don’t work too much or fall asleep in your chair or forget birthdays or feel helpless when I’m despairing. (I don’t know if earthly fathers do those things, but I’ve heard that some do.)

This is why Father’s Day is hard,
why the concept of a Heavenly Father is hard:
I don’t know what good fathering feels like.

But I know what love feels like.
I know what the Holy Spirit feels like when He’s speaking through me.
I know what peace feels like when the world is hammering me hard,
what hope feels like when there’s no logical reason to hope.
I know what confidence feels like, even when I am painfully unqualified.

Perhaps that’s fathering at its best, on earth and in heaven.
Good fathering covers you, protects you, accepts you, directs you, loves you.

So thank you.
Thank you for being a Father to the fatherless.
Thank you for fathering the fathered.
Thank you for being whatever kind of father all 7.5 billion of us need.

We just need to talk to you, to find out Who you are,
what kind of Father you are.
We have to decide not to be afraid to know you.
Because you won’t disappoint, leave, die, or hurt us.
And you only do good things.

I love you, God. You are my Father.

Amen.

image by axelle b