Every year around Father’s Day I get emails from women about their fathers. They felt either abandonment, rejection, abuse, or indifference from their fathers. It breaks my heart.
But I have seen God come through in amazing ways for the woman who has always longed for a father’s love. Every year around this time, I post an article reminding my readers of God’s “Father heart” for us and every year it is my most-read post.
So, let me encourage you again this year with how God wants to more than make up for what you may have lacked in a loving father here on this earth.
Scripture tells us three wonderful things about your true Father, if you are in relationship with Jesus Christ:
1. Your Heavenly Father Wanted You as His Child
We are all God’s creation. But we are not all God’s children. Scripture says we are all, by nature, children of wrath (Ephesians 2:1-3), but God found a way to adopt us as His own. I used to envy adopted children because they could not say they were “accidents” or unplanned when it came to being in their family. Their adoptive parents wanted them so much they found a way to get them. Our Heavenly Father did the same for us. He found a way to make us His own, even though we were set apart from Him at birth. Romans 5:8 says “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” And Romans 8:15 says we have been given the spirit of adoption, through that death and resurrection that Christ endured on our behalf. That means you weren’t an unplanned or unwanted child. You were not an accident. Even if you feel no one on earth really wanted you, God did. And He found a way to make you His own.
2. Your Heavenly Father Wants You to Call Him “Daddy”
Scripture doesn’t just say we can call God our Father. The Bible tells us we have been given the right, through our adoption, to call Him “Daddy.”
Again, Romans 8:15 tells us we are given the spirit of adoption and “by him we cry ‘Abba, Father.’” The English word that is most close in meaning to the Aramaic word “Abba” is “Papa” or “Daddy.” Jesus used this affectionate, loving term for His Father when He prayed “Abba” or “Daddy” in the Garden of Gethsemane shortly before He was arrested and crucified. In crying out “Abba” Jesus showed His dependence on Daddy while contemplating His impending death. We can call upon our Heavenly Daddy or “Papa” as personally as God’s own loving Son, Jesus, did. That is a privilege. That is affection. And that is love between a Daddy and His daughter.
3. Your Heavenly Father wants you to rely on His protective love
My earliest recollections of time with my earthly Daddy are when he would take me for rides on his bicycle across town to Fred’s Café when I was three or four years old. Every afternoon, Dad would get out his bike and I would jump at the opportunity to sit in front of him on his bike with just his arm around me as he pedaled across town, over the railroad tracks and into the dirt parking lot of Fred’s. Even though it was a long ride, neither of us wore a helmet, the bike had no handbrakes (and many times Dad rode without hands), and we had to cross those bumpy railroad tracks every time, I never for a moment feared that I would fall or be hurt. I was up close next to Daddy. Daddy was holding me. Daddy would keep me safe.
It’s often been said that daughters have a special place in the hearts of their daddies. It’s no different with our Daddy in heaven. Every child of God has a special place in His heart. He asks us to ride with Him and He holds us close where we’ll be safe, even over the bumpy railroad tracks of life.
Deuteronomy 33:26-27 says “…no other god is like ours – he rides across the skies to come and help us. The eternal God is our hiding place; he carries us in his arms….”
If you happened to have a relationship with your father in which you could freely call him “Daddy” and trust in His love, that is truly a blessing. God was giving you a glimpse of the fatherly love and affection He has for you. But if you didn’t, God is giving you an opportunity now to call Him Daddy and experience the closeness you’ve always longed for in a daddy-daughter relationship. Won’t you let your Heavenly Father fill that hole in your heart this Father’s Day?
What a wonderful piece! I will be thinking of it on Father’s day as I once again miss my dad.
Thanks, Elizabeth. Glad it touched your heart.
Hello Cindi,
I am like my father and miss him a lot. His birthday
is also this month. Sometimes I go out to the cemetary
this month each year. I don’t think I will go this year
for reasons I cannot discuss. Isn’t it wonderful to have
a father who gives you his blessing. He did at the end of
his life. Our Father God has given me grace throughout
my life. I am grateful for both. So glad you have a blog.
Thank you, Carol, for sharing your thoughts. Good to hear from you as always.
Thank you so much for this! Fathers Day has always been difficult. My own Daddy died a month after I was born and my mom never remarried. And when I got married my in-laws only wanted to be addressed by their first names. So this article is such an encouragement, especially love the Deut. reference.
You’re welcome, Lisa. I’m so glad you were encouraged by this reminder that you are precious in the eyes of your Heavenly Father.
cindy good to read from you as always, the father figure image can also be disruptive especially at this time to women who have had lots of traumatic injury in their lives inflicted on them by men, some, especially those who were abandoned by their earthly father would always question, where God was when all these horrible things happen to them (incest, rape, murder, domestic violence, physical/verbal abuse) and the list goes on and on, i pray that the everlasting arm of God will envelope and comfort these ones, this day is not only for our earthly fathers, it is mostly for appreciating our ALMIGHTY FATHER for who HE is and thanking HIM for who HE is not.
Well said, Evelyn. Thank you, my friend, for your comforting words for women. Always good to hear from you, too. : )
i bless the LORD for my earthly father who now at 93y/o left everything to raise us 10kids, sacrificed to give us the best he could, the most important of all he gave us was teaching us about GOD who has been his only helper, papa thank you and may the good LORD continue to defend you always, AMEN.
Thank you, Evelyn. What a blessing that you had a loving father….God gave you a glimpse of the kind of love He has for you through your father.
Thanks Cindi for this message.
Though I miss my dad so much who passed on when I needed him most, your words have really encouraged me. I really find it hard sometimes to observe days like fathers and mothers day. I usually tear up. I think your CD on “…overcoming life’s hurts” will come in handy. God bless!
Thank you, Becky, for sharing your comments. Be comforted knowing God sees the longings and aches of your heart and can meet you there where you need Him most.