by Joanne Wiklund
My earthly father was so human. He was funny, lovable, demanding and often gone, working wherever he could to keep his family fed. He almost always had hope for a better tomorrow. Webster defines a father as a noun with the words “a male parent.” As a verb, “a father is the founder, producer and author of.” In each of us is our own definition of a father. Mine: “A father is someone who is tougher than any other father around, but he cries when he buries your dog. A father is someone who hands out allowances with the admonition: ‘When I was your age, I didn’t have any more money than I do now’. A father is someone who gives you his last name, his sense of humor and on occasion, his car keys. A father is someone who says you’re too young to wear makeup, too young to date, and old enough to know better when you make a mistake. A father is someone who watches your team go down in the agony of defeat and never says “It’s only a game.”
My Heavenly Father is perfect and sent His Son to live with and die for us. Jesus and The Holy Spirit are part of a triune Godhead. I am blessed because I believe in them. He and the other two are with me. I can talk to them when I need to, which is often these days. I’m learning to lean on them more all the time.
Frog was my daughter’s nickname in school. She loved green, Kermit the Frog and her wardrobe often reflected that. Long before she left us at 40 she found out that FROG stands for “Fully Rely On God.” I remembered that again when I went to the basement in a storm and discovered I was sitting next to her wrapped collection of frogs, stuffed as well as ceramic. As an elementary school student, she studied her grandpa, my bedridden father and watched him wiggle his ears, up and down, very noticably. They both laughed about it so much, especially when she figured out how to wiggle her own ears the same way by the time she reached junior high.
The true measure of a father is not in shoe or collar size, but with the yardstick of love in a child’s heart and eyes.”
Romans 8:35 “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
Romans 8:37-39 “Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things sent, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.