The First Baptist Church of Granada Hills

          In America, the third Sunday of June is set aside as a day to honor fathers.  Father’s Day, despite its relatively recent origin, has nonetheless come to be one of the great affirmations of life.  On this day millions of sons and daughters will take their fathers to lunch, give sentimental cards, and even little gifts to remind their dads that they’re appreciated.

          While some may balk at all this, the big to-do is wholly appropriate considering that fatherhood stands as one of the twin pillars of that most fundamental of all human institutions: the family.  Each successive generation of fathers thus bears the impressive and intimidating responsibility to work alongside its wives to raise up the next generation of mankind.  With this in mind it seems that, if anything, the fuss people make over Father’s Day, being only one day out of the year, is rather more inadequate than over-blown.

          But fathers can take heart; the blessings and difficulties of fatherhood are not something that God leads us into unaided.  Instead, the Lord equips each man called to this high estate with at least three points of reference to guide him: the example of his own father, the potentially much surer example of God Himself, and the teachings of the Bible.  As Jesus said, “From everyone who has been given much, much will be required.”  Or, to invert the statement, “To everyone from whom much will be required, much has been given.”

          In the example of our own fathers we see that ordinary men, men with strengths and also weaknesses, virtues and also vices, can, if they work at it, do a fairly good job of raising children; that is to say, fatherhood doesn’t require perfection, only commitment.  At the same time, the example furnished to us by God, the Father Almighty, in His dealings with both Israel and the early Church shows us that fatherhood requires love, but also discipline; high expectations, but also a willingness to forgive.  And in Scripture we see how these two examples can be related to our own attempts at fatherhood, both in how to treat one’s children and (of equal importance) how to treat their mothers–specifically in the Book of Proverbs, St. Paul’s letters to the Ephesians and Colossians, and St. Peter’s first letter.

          So this Father’s Day, thank dear ol’ dad for everything that he’s done, but also take a moment to consider Who else might be entitled to a bit of your time and a few words of gratitude.