"don't End Up Under The Bed!"

Good morning Church! And a happy father’s day to all our dads and grandpa’s out there I’m so happy you have taken the time to be worshipping here today. You are setting a great example to your children about the importance and priority of worshipping God and being in church, even on this special day. And Happy Summer! Starting next Sunday we will move to our Summer hours and our service will begin at 9:45. More information and an important announcement will be given at the end of our service, so stay right there!

Join me as I open our service in prayer.

Our Scripture reading this morning is Deut.1:30-31.

“The Lord your God, who is going before you, will fight for you, as he did for you in Egypt, before your very eyes, 31 and in the wilderness. There you saw how the Lord your God carried you, as a father carries his son, all the way you went until you reached this place.”

May God be pleased with the reading of His word!

Before I actually begin let me say, I know Father’s Day can be a difficult day for many people. Many have lost their father’s, there is many a single mom without a husband for whatever reason, and some homes that do not have a descent father. I recognize those often painful situations. But we should not shy away from hearing and understanding what God’s word says about father’s as a corrective, and as a positive example for our children. So, today I want to speak about the traditional father.

Many of you older folks will remember Erma Bombeck. She was an American humorist who achieved great popularity for her newspaper column that described the everyday suburban home life from the mid-1960s until the late 1990s. She wrote many articles for Father’s Day but this one has become something of a classic. It had to do with her reflections, as a young girl, on her own dad and just what a dad did anyway. Let me read it to you.

“One morning my father didn’t get up for work. He went to the hospital and died the next day.

I hadn’t thought much about him before. He was just someone who left home and came home and seemed to be glad to see everyone at night. He opened the jars of pickles when no one else could. He was the only one in the house who wasn’t afraid to go into the basement by himself.

He cut himself shaving, but no one kissed it or got excited about it. It was understood that when it rained, he got the car and brought it around to the door. When anyone was sick, he went to get the prescription filled. He took lots of pictures…but he never in them.

Whenever I played house, the mother doll had lots to do. I never knew what to do with the daddy doll, so I had him say, “I’m going off to work now, “ and threw him under the bed.

The funeral was in our house and lots of people came and brought all kinds of food and cakes.

I went to my room, reached under the bed for the daddy doll. When I found him, I dusted him off and put him on my bed. He never did anything. I didn’t know his leaving would hurt so much.”

For many younger children their father is something of a mystery. Only as they grow older do they grow in their knowledge and appreciation for dad. Yet, it’s not just kids who find dad a bit of a mystery. In our fragmented, fracturing society that is endeavoring to redefine family, even father’s can be confused as what a father does and is. In such cases it is always good to go back to the blueprint, the original design and see what type of things God says about fathers.

As I mentioned on Mother’s Day, God likewise uses the analogy of fathers to describe what He is like so we can better understand and appreciate our Father in heaven. The use of the words, “like” or “as” indicate an analogy. Let me give you a couple of examples;

Ps.103:13 reads;

“As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him.”

Prov.3:12;

“…because the Lord disciplines those he loves,

    as a father the son he delights in.”

As our fathers show compassion, love, and disciplines and delights in us, so our heavenly Father does so but much more. Then there today’s verse, Deut.1:31.

“and in the wilderness. There you saw how the Lord your God carried you, as a father carries his son, all the way you went until you reached this place.”

There are few images that convey the thought of love, compassion as well as strength as that of “carrying someone.” We have all seen the movies depicting a most desperate time when someone’s strength fails, usually the woman or child, sometimes a buddy, and the hero carries them, often with great effort, maybe in spite of the danger, in order to save them. They may be wounded on the battlefield, or struggling across a sun-scorched desert or any number of inhospitable settings. But the image at once is powerful and speaks of a loyalty and sacrificial love.