This week-end we have been celebrating Father’s Day. In church, we saw a video montage of father and their sons – from little guys with their twenty something fathers all the way up to elderly fathers and their middle aged sons. Then, in addition to the regular things that happen when we celebrate Father’s Day or Mother’s Day, men kind of get into the more unusual stuff – and this year was no exception.
Ed Carpenter happens to go to our church – and if you don’t know who he is, Ed was the runner up in this year’s Indy 500 race held here in May. Ed was kind enough to bring one of his race cars to church and both boys and their fathers enjoyed taking pictures and climbing in the cockpit of a genuine Indy car. Everyone had a great time.
Did you ever notice how we go on Facebook, Instagram and other social media outlets and tell the world about how we love our fathers – and how wonderful they are? There are thousands of tributes posted by sons and daughters telling us why their fathers were the best fathers in the world! And those of us who have already lost our fathers remember them with fondness and talk about the things that we remember them for. We do the same thing when we honor our mothers each May.
It’s wonderful that we care so much for our parents that we honor them the way we do each year. How I wish that we would adopt that attitude of gratitude and love every day of the year.
It seems that the older we get, the more we appreciate our parents. I remember when I was younger that I took my parents for granted. I guess I knew in my heart that they were doing what was in my best interest but it sure didn’t seem like it at the time. And now that they are both gone, how I wish that I could pick up the phone and call either one of them. I don’t think that I will ever get over that feeling.
Imagine how much we adore our parents and our children. For those who believe in God and His Son, Jesus, the way we love our families pales in comparison to the way that God loves us. I know that is difficult to believe. After all, with our human limitations, we can’t even begin to fathom the love that God, the Ultimate Father, has for us.
God loved us to the point that He sent His Son, Jesus, to atone for our sins. He was the perfect sacrifice – the only one without sin. And we know from Jesus that He came to do the will of the Father. Many people think that God sent Jesus to judge the world, but that just isn’t the case. Our verse for this evening gives us the reason that God sent His Son among us.
The apostle, John, gives us the words of Jesus in John 12:47. We are told, “As for the person who hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge him. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save it.” Knowing that Jesus only did the will of the Father, it stands to reason that God was the architect of the mission of Jesus. That’s how much God loves us – enough to save the world and all of us with it!
My encouragement tonight is that God loves it when we honor our parents as well as one another with our love. My prayer is that we will all do our part to make the world a more loving place and that all those wonderful things we learned from our fathers and mothers will be multiplied many times over to advance the kingdom of God here on earth. Have a great day in the Lord, grace and peace…