Toongabbie Anglican Church Blog

Weekly Blurb Make it a Happy Father’s Day

Make it a Happy Father’s Day

Sunday 6 September, 2009 · Posted by Raj Gupta

We wish all the fathers among us a very happy Father’s Day.

The first Father’s Day was celebrated in 1910. The day was introduced to celebrate fatherhood and honour fathers, as we ought to do.

At the same time, it is worth remembering that for many this is a sad day, for it can remind one of the less than ideal relationship they have had (and continue to have) with their father or child. Indeed for some, there has been no such relationship.

An extreme example of the less than ideal is the horrific and unfolding story of Jaycee Lee Dugard, allegedly kidnapped when she was 11. For the next 18 years, she was denied any relationship with her father. One can only imagine the type of relationship that her two children had with their ‘father’.

It is an extreme and sickening example, but one that may cause us to think about our relationship with our own father. Perhaps there has been a break down in trust. Perhaps you feel betrayed. Perhaps you feel that they were too busy with other things to give you time. Perhaps you did not have the opportunity to have any relationship with them.

Sadly, all of these are a reality in our world today. And one of the resulting difficulties is that it can then be difficult to comprehend the type of heavenly Father that God is and wants to be. He is the one who sent his One and Only Son into the world to die so that you might have the opportunity to have a relationship with him. That is how much he loves us. It is a love that is not limited to the hypothetical. He went to extreme lengths because of it.

Once again this week, we are privileged to have Archbishop Peter Jensen with us to speak about this extraordinary love of God. Last week he encouraged us that the stories of the Bible are relatively easy to understand. We focussed on the story of the prodigal son, with the challenge of how we may respond to Jesus.

This week, we again welcome Peter and Christine. May I encourage us, this Father’s Day, to reflect on the relationship that our heavenly father so desperately wants with us.  The Bible puts it like this: God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8).

It is overwhelming, really.  Whatever might be holding you back, this Father’s Day would be a wonderful occasion to embrace the love of the one who wants to be your heavenly Father.

Raj