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Thursday, October 19, 2006

The Heavenly Father's Example of Fatherhood

Grace Moment by Moment-weekly column
"I wish I hadn't given him up." sighed my Dad. Regrets, wishes, and hopes were the unspoken dreams my Dad expressed in his last days. How many of us would give everything we possessed to have one last chance to make amends? It's been three years since Dad died and still his words haunt me.
When Dad was a young man, he and his wife at the time, made a tough decision to give up their child for adoption. Dad knew it was the right thing to do. They couldn't provide for him because of circumstances and financial problems. That doesn't mean it was an easy decision to make then . . . or now.
In a perfect world, parents would never make mistakes, grow old or die. But, we don't live in a perfect world. As I gave him care during his last days, I learned to see my Dad as a human being. He had feet of clay, didn't live on a pedestal and simply loved . . . me. The life he lived was checkered with poor choices, snap decisions, vices and health problems. However, these things shaped who he became. I don't know much about his relationship with his own parents, except what I heard in passing from his siblings. I do know for a fact, the one thing he never regretted was pouring all of his love into me. Maybe he thought he could make amends for everything else, if he showered me with all the attention he never gave my brothers. (Including the one I didn't know about.) I know he loved them deeply, he just never knew how to show it in a positive way. Dad's gone and only God knows the truth now.
What I do believe is that in His own way, through the little details I most often overlooked, Dad loved me.
As a father, God did the same for his son, Jesus. While God gave Jesus life, He couldn't be present physically to teach Jesus how to make a living with His hands. Or take Jesus to His first service at the local synogogue. So, God did something wonderful. He gave Jesus two incredible parents, Joseph and Mary, to simply love him.
That's why I wrote the following poem. To share with everyone how much God loves us, and that the Heavenly Father's example of fatherhood is something everybody can do: love your children.

Father to Son, Son to Father
Holding Heaven in his hands,
Joseph struggled to understand,
how a little baby boy could be
the answer to save all hunanity.
'How was he, a humble carpenter from Nazareth, supposed to teach
Yahweh's Son, to preach?'
Caressing Jesus' face with his callused fingertips
Joseph marveled at the hunger in the boy's eyes
as gut-piercing cries
spilled from His lips.
Silently, Joseph wondered,
'How would sin's curse be sundered?'
Thirty years later, Jesus sat by a dying Joseph's bedside
and described to him what would happen after Joseph died.
"The depths of God's Love will reach down from Heaven above
erasing the boundaries of time and space
proving nothing compares to the infinite span of God's Grace."
then Joseph reaching out, blessed Jesus, "My Son, may the Light of God's Grace shine upon you. May you always bring honor to your Heavenly Father."
When Joseph breathed his last and first breath, Jesus gathered him into His arms and cried, "Abba! Father!"
Then Jesus wept.
Three years later, Jesus kept
His word. And today we know the impact Joseph had on Jesus' life,
how communion with God came about because of Jesus' sacrifice.
Storm-tossed and buffeted on every side
we still need to tell others Jesus is Alive!
Then we too, like Joseph,can rejoice
with a loud voice
as we sing,
"Praise and Thank you Jesus, for You are Lord of Lords and King of Kings!"

Written by:
Belle Anne Leslie

Written on:
May 3, 2006

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