A Father’s Love

Mustard Seed Chronicles: Story Time with LU Grandma

I had a good dad. He was not perfect of course but who is?

Just after I was saved, I could not wrap my mind around the unconditional love of the Heavenly Father. I prayed and said, “Lord, I need to know what this means.”

My son had been on dialysis since his early childhood. When he was about 10 years old the techs at the dialysis unit got together and got him and the three other children on the dialysis unit, a two-week stay at a YMCA camp down in Frost Valley, NY. It would be the first time in a while he could enjoy a camp experience and be a “normal” kid for two weeks as they had a dialysis unit on site. What a blessing that was! When we arrived, we had to check in at this huge lodge. I mean it was gigantic! Probably the size of the Vines Center at Liberty University. They had tables around the perimeter and we were supposed to stop at each table and complete a step or activity toward checking in.

In line, I was standing behind this man who looked like a mountain to me. Me, being a little over five feet tall and him being well over six feet with very broad shoulders. He had black hair and a big beard. He was holding his little girl, probably a year and a half old or so. We were standing in line for quite a while and she kept squirming, squirming, squirming, squirming, so finally he put her down.

He said, “You want to get down? Here.” She started walking out into the middle of this humongous empty space because everybody was all around the edges at the tables. She was checking everything out and was just in her glory of discovery. When she finally thought to look for her dad, she could not find him in the sea of people.

She started crying and screaming something that I didn’t understand. He stepped out of line and started toward her. She saw him and started running toward him. He picked her up into his arms and brought her back into the line with him giving her the sweetest, loving hug of comfort. I overheard him say, “Honey, please don’t ever forget you walked away from me. You did not want to stay with me. I was watching you the whole time and if anything was going to happen to you. I was right here.”

I was so touched by his response, I touched him on the shoulder and said, “I did not mean to eavesdrop. I love the way you handled that! Thank you for being that kind of a dad. When she was out in the middle of the floor, she was screaming something. What was she saying?”

“She was calling for me,” he said. I was puzzled and said, “But she was not saying ‘Daddy’.”

He said, “Oh, I am Jewish. She was calling ‘ABBA’.”

Oh, my goodness! At that moment I understood that God is not the “Fahthah” type of dad that is ready to pounce on me if I did anything wrong, or one who was so aloof that I could not relate to him. He was my Daddy! Scripture tells us that when Jesus died, the curtain in the temple tore from top to bottom giving us access to the Father, ABBA, anytime! I laughingly could picture myself running into the throne room of God and jumping up on ‘Daddy’s lap!

This changed the way I looked at the Christian life. I hope it does for you too.

I found out a little later that the dad of that little girl was to be my son’s dialysis doctor for those two weeks at camp as a volunteer from Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City.

What precious gifts our Abba has in store for us!

Prayer

Abba, Daddy, we come to you today boldly as your children very thankful for Your love for us and for the relationship we can have with YOU! We never want to take Your unconditional love for granted. Help us not to trod on Your promise in Romans 8:1-4 “So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death. The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us, who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit.” (NLT)

I pray in the precious name of Jesus. Amen!