Fathers Day 2007

Today was Father's Day in the United States. We celebrated in the traditional ways, Our children gave Sean hand drawn or colored Fathers Day cards in envelopes they made themselves and Anna presented him with an "Awesome Dad" shirt that she really believed to be the best gift ever given to anyone in all of history. Of course he, like other Fathers all over the USA, declared its wonder, put it on right away and wore it all over town :) We finished the day by forgoing our families normal healthy diet in favor of eating big hunks of meat off the BBQ with cheesy potato chips and baked beans. It was a really fun happy day. . . for us.

In much of the world children are living without their fathers. Many of these children have not ever met the men who provided half their DNA. They have difficulty understanding the great and amazing love of a Father God, when they have not experienced love from an earthly father. God has assured us of his love, given us purpose! Today I am encouraged by Romans 15 - 25


Romans 8:15-25

So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba, Father.” For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children. And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering. Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later. For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are. Against its will, all creation was subjected to God’s curse. But with eager hope, the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay. For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us. We were given this hope when we were saved. (If we already have something, we don’t need to hope for it. But if we look forward to something we don’t yet have, we must wait patiently and confidently.) New Living Translation