Once again it's been a while, but today isn't the day I'm going to catch you up on my life. Today's blog is dedicated to my dad seeing as it's Father's Day.
The first church service my DTS team helped out with at the orphanage when we arrived in Battambang, Cambodia was a memorable one for me. Someone needed to step up and share a message, and I felt that fluttering in my heart that told me it was supposed to be me.
When I was praying about what to share, I was led to the topic of "What my father taught me about God." God is the ultimate Father and I was blessed to have a father here on earth who has shown me so much about what the Father's love looks like. Remembering that this message was going to be spoken to a group of children living in an orphanage, this is the jist of what I can remember about it.
At the time I was very far away from my family, and even now though I'm closer it sometimes still feels far. I miss them a lot, but I know I am not alone because God has given me another family. I am God's child and not an orphan.
When I miss my dad, there are certain things that I think about that are also true about God. I miss my dad's hands.
My dad is a farmer and works hard and his hands tell the story of this work. They are strong, and calloused from work. God is a hard-working Father as well...he formed us from the dust of the earth and planted a garden (Genesis 2:7-8).
My dad's hands always felt so much bigger than mine and that made me feel so safe. God holds us all in His hands as well and it says in John10:28-29 that "no one can snatch [us] out of [the] Father’s hand." which seems to be a pretty safe place to be.
When I was little, my dad would guide me when I held his hand and the same is true today of my relationship with God. David talks about this in one of my favourite Psalms: 139, "If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast." (Psalm 139:10). When I step out in faith where God is leading me, I remember how it felt to trust the leadership of my dad as a child, with my small hand in his and I feel less afraid.
My dad also showed me how God loves me through his love for me. Even when I do things he doesn't understand, travel far away to places he's not sure are safe for me I know that no matter what I do or where I go my dad loves me and I don't have to earn it. God's love is just the same, and I feel so blessed to have begun to experience this kind of love.
Another way I was blessed and am still blessed by my dad is to have had a room of my own in a home. Even now when I come home to visit or stay for a month or two there's always a space for me in my parents' house. Jesus tells us about God's version of "our own room" in John 14:2. He tells us that there are many rooms in his Father's house and that he is going ahead to prepare a room for us. Sometimes I like to imagine what my room might look like...would it have a waterfall in it? I bet there would be an enormous tree and maybe the ceiling would look just like the sky with clouds that move...As I'm writing this today, I can still see the Khmer children in the orphanage closing their eyes to imagine their own rooms being prepared for them in heaven, and it's that much sweeter for them who didn't have a home of their own to get in the way of their imaginations.
My dad also takes scripture very seriously and always encouraged us to go to church growing up. There's a man who has paraphrased verses from the Old and New Testaments of the Bible to compile what he calls the "Father's Love Letter" which can be found at http://www.fathersloveletter.com/ and I would encourage you to check it out.
Anyway those are just a few small ways that my dad has shown me God's Father Heart and I'm so grateful. There are so many other ways that I could keep writing for a long time, but I'll leave it at that. Thanks so much Dad, I love you and Happy Father's Day!
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