My Dad is a great man.
There I said it and I hope you can say it too about your own father. My Dad loves my brother and me and has always been a man of integrity and honor. He has, so far as I know, never told a lie.
I cannot help but think that this good experience with DOD (Dear Old Dad for those not in the Reynolds’ home) shaped my views of God (the Great Omnipotent Deity). It is easier and more natural to believe in God, when you have a Dad like I have.
Of course, my beliefs, however comfortable, had to go through intellectual, experiential, and emotional challenges, but surely having a good father made praying the Our Father easier. I was a prodigal son who went wrong. I damaged myself and others by my sin, but coming back to Father’s house was simpler based on what I knew about a father’s love from DOD.
Given the staggering benefits (intellectual, experiential, and emotional!) I have received from Father, I am thankful to my father for making them easier to find. God, the divine daddy who never stops looking for His lost children, would have pursued me in any case, but DOD made my soul more receptive to the divine call.
Today is the sort-of-artificial “holiday” called “Father’s Day” and it is also (for my church) the Feast of Pentecost. However, contrived by greeting card companies Father’s Day reminds me of all I owe to DOD while Pentecost reminds me (in a deeper way) how many good gifts shower down from Heaven from my Heavenly Daddy.
Here is a traditional prayer on Pentecost:
“Lo, we celebrate the Feast of Pentecost, the presence of the Spirit, the fulfillment of the promise and the completion of the hope. How wonderful is this mystery. … Thou hast renewed for thy Disciples, O Christ, a different kind of tongues, that they might therewith proclaim that thou art the immortal Word and God who granteth our souls the Great Mercy. The Holy Spirit provideth all; overfloweth with prophecy; fulfilleth the Priesthood; and hath taught wisdom to the illiterate. He hath revealed the fishermen as theologians. He bringeth together all the laws of the Church.”
Holy Spirit, the gift of God to His children in this age “provideth all.”
Many of us had parents where it often felt as if they “provideth all.” Of course, the “all” they provided was not (mostly) material. They love us and care for our souls. They deal with the important things that no amount of stuff can ever give us.
However good their gifts (and even their persons) sometimes failed us. My Dad meant to do right by me always, but sometimes what he intended did not work out as he hoped. This is not true of the great gift of Pentecost. It always comes out right . . . even if it meets our real needs and not our felt needs!
That is because the gift of Pentecost was the Holy Spirit. God gave us Himself. The third person of the Trinity is present in us in a new and special way after the first Pentecost! What an awesome mystery . . . and how fitting for Father’s Day.
My earthly father has never stopped growing spiritually. He is a true “pentecostal” . . . a man of Pentecost who longs to be where the Spirit is moving. His journey has not ended yet and he keeps surprising me with the directions he takes. With his several theology degrees, he has gone back to school to learn more. His journey is not over yet. He is a man of great spirit, moving out to California this month to start a new ministry, and a man of holiness.
This Pentecost my DOD makes me want to be like him. He would remind me, and he will if he reads this, that I should strive to be more like my heavenly Father.
Fair enough, but let me (ah the temerity of a middle aged son!) that he has been and is an icon, a pointing sign, to that Heavenly Father. He was a vessel in bringing true Pentecost to me and to my entire family!
Yes . . . to God alone by all the final glory, honor, and power . . . but He commands me also to honor those who have faithfully been His Image to me, my parents . . . and I honor one of them especially today.
Happy Father’s Day and Blessed Pentecost DOD! See you in Church.