Even if you had ten thousand teachers in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel.

1 Corinthians 4:15

Happy Father’s Day! If you have a good dad, and a good relationship with them, today is a good day. If that is the case, then you should be extremely grateful because there are thousands of people for whom that is not the case. Some don’t know their dad. Some aren’t close with him. Others have lost them and today is tainted with grief.

The relationship between a Dad and their child is one of the most mysterious and beautiful things on the planet. Try watching this scene from the Lion King or this scene from A Knight’s Tale without bursting into tears. Whether it is “dads and lads” or “being a daddy’s girl”, there’s so much power weaved into the ways that fathers and their children relate.

Maybe that’s because God is revealed as a Father? He’s a Father with a Son and so I think that, when it is functioning well, we can see the thumbprints of God in the role of an earthly dad. Our relationships with our natural fathers are meant to be a gospel picture of the Father for us. When we have a dad that does that well, it’s a great gift. If your dad didn’t do that well, or at all, then the gospel is redemptive good news because you have a perfect heavenly Father who will fill those gaps.

Paul knew the value of a father. That’s why, in 1 Corinthians, he writes the above verse with a sense of sadness and responsibility. The Corinthians had so many teachers and preachers (I’m not sure they had ten thousand but it’s a biblical way of saying “A lot!”) but they did not have many fathers. So Paul adopts the posture and role of a father because a father is worth so much more.

Today might have been a Hallmark invented occasion but, whatever and whoever your father is, there’s a chance to connect  with the perfect Father – to say “thank you” to the one who will never leave, always affirm and forever love us.