A Child's Father's Day Right

By Reverend Michael Farias

Father’s Day has always been a tough celebration for me, but not because I didn’t have a dad in the home as a child - I did.  And not because I don’t have children of my own - I do, and grandchildren, too.  And not because I was an absentee father to my kids, because I wasn’t.  It’s because so many people in our country cannot make that claim.

If fatherlessness was a disease, America would be submerged in an epidemic.  Approximately 24 million children in America are being raised without the presence of their biological father, and millions more have the physical presence of a father, but no emotional connection. Studies suggest that as many as one out of every three children in America is growing up without a father. These numbers are simply devastating.

I came across a story recently that explains just one effect of fatherlessness. Executives of a greeting-card company decided to do something special for Mother’s Day. They set up a table in a federal prison, inviting inmates to send a free card to their Mom. The lines were so long they had to get more cards.  Due to the success of that event, they decided to do the same thing on Father’s Day, but this time, not one prisoner felt the need to send a card to his Dad. In fact, when asked about it, many had no idea who their fathers were.

So whether you are able to celebrate Father’s Day with a family gathering and a barbeque, or if it is a day of sorrow and loneliness for you, there is something we all have in common; our right to a father.

John 1:12 says, But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name.

This is a right I exercised at the age of 24.  It was and is my God-given right to have a heavenly father, and it is your right too.  Included in that right is the privilege of a new identity and being called by a new name.  According to Ephesians 1:5, I have been adopted by God.  1 Peter 1:9 says that I am God’s special possession.

It’s great to be honored as a dad on Father’s Day, and I’m grateful that I had a father in my life, but nothing can compare to my heavenly Father.  My best attempts at fatherhood will sometimes fall short, and my memories and experience of my dad’s attempts at fatherhood leave him occasionally falling short as well, but my relationship with my Father God inspires me to be the best son I can be.

It’s wonderful if you are able to give honor to your dad on Father’s Day, but it is especially great to give honor to our heavenly Father, the one who loves us, cares for us, provides for us, and has a mansion prepared for us.  Give honor where honor is due.

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! 1 John 3:1