Father's Day / Sunday of All Saints

Today is the celebration of All Saints.

A beautiful day to celebrate also the living

among us who have been a revelation of God to us.

*

My Father is one of these people in my life.

I grew up in a secure Christian home,

one of the biggest gifts I was ever given was a good family.

I loved God from an early age and had a very deep

sense of God as Father.

And I knew what Father meant.

Someone you could go to,

Someone who could somehow fix everything

and make things better.

Reliable.

Patient.

Gentle.

Intentionally Gentle.

Wise and waiting for you to ask for his wisdom.

Meeting you on your level,

never diminishing and taking one's questions

seriously and talking intelligently to me

even when I was young,

not assuming that I was not up to the level

of conversation that my questions were at.

My Dad worked and still works hard;

he put us all through Christian Education

K-12 even when there was not much money to be had.

He gave sacrificially.

And he never mentions it to us or asks for what he

gave to us in return.

I love my Dad because he loves me.

I learned to love God because my Dad loves God.

CS Lewis was my favourite author because he was my

Dad's favourite author.

My Dad can talk sense into me quickly and gently

never condemning, with the insight of me as his

daughter.

*

My Dad can fix anything I think.

When I had a car and broke the headlight he fixed it.

He welds my metal sweater button

on my pretty wool winter sweater.

He fixes my shoes, my belts, my suitcase wheels;

he rebound my teen Bible when I was in my 20's;

it is still with me to this day,

that Bible.

when I was little he hand split lots of shingles for my

doll house, which he also painted, plastered and

wall-papered.

*

I love it that he teases me so much.

His teasing is like extra hugs and I love to tease him back.

*

He paints and fixes up houses for a living.

He is the most trustworthy, hardworking man I know;

he treats his clients well and with care

and consideration.

He learns new painting techniques and new ways to

get work.

I can't tell you how much it has taught me how he works;

always trusting God since his type of work

is not a every-2 week paycheck type job.

Even in the hard times when everyone was out of work

he would never complain, despair or give up.

My being unemployed for the most of the last 2 years

his example has been very steadying for me.

When everything got really hard last November,

job-wise, money/tax-bill wise,

his counsel about looking to God everyday

and that he was proud of me for not giving up

was one of my most meaningful moments

of my still fairly young life.

*

Another was when I was in my early 20's and finally got my

driving license; I had to take the test twice as

I made a mistake on the parking part of the test.

My parents took me out all day practicing and

I can still remember the look of joy and that my Dad was proud of me

when I got the parking maneuver right.

My Dad was so patient with me in taking me driving

to learn; no one better to learn from than him.

*

And my Dad loves my Mom.

I have two pictures of my Dad on my shelf that I see

everyday by my table and this computer.

The one picture is at a wedding and my Mom is smiling

and looking strait ahead while my Dad is smiling,

looking at her with eyes that show his continued

joy and love he has for her.

The other picture is of my Dad and I camping

sitting in chairs next to each other at the camp fire.

I love that picture a lot.

I grew up camping with my family and my Dad

loves nature very much; he is so alive when in nature

and the outdoors.

He feeds us from his gardening every year;

he used to do all the canning when us kids were young

as my Mom had all she could do to get us to bed

each night.

The tomatoes I had last August at home were so good;

he grew them; I had forgotten what a real tomato even tastes like.

*

When I had news of that big job interview

last year that I was flown out for

(but did not get)

he got me flowers and wrote me a small note.

That note is with me everyday, as it is in a special

zippered pocket of my purse.

*

I still love God our Father today and I know

my trust of God was ignited because my Dad

showed me what having a Father means.

It is one of the best things in the world

and I am glad that God the Father

is Father to us both.