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Written by Peter Gabriel
I lost my dad this year. As Father’s Day approaches, I’m reflecting on how much I look forward to the family reunion God, our Father, has promised.
On April 25, 2011, the evening ending this year’s Feast of Unleavened Bread, my dad succumbed to cancer. Dad was 76 and had been battling cancer for little more than a year. I had been with him earlier that day along with other family members, but I went on to church services and received much comfort, reinforced by the meaning of that day.
Dad died peacefully later that evening, a believer in God’s festival plan, which gave him great emotional strength to endure his trial to the very end. Dad and I were separated at times throughout my childhood and young adulthood but had grown closer as I grew older.
As Father’s Day approaches, I look back and reflect over the past month or so since his death, and that old cliché about “not missing them until they’re gone” has been completely realized in my mind.
From armed soldier to Christian soldier
There will be many anniversaries to remind me of Dad: Father’s Day, his birthday (July 9), Memorial Day and Veteran’s Day. Dad served his country in the armed forces in both Korea and Vietnam. During his second tour in Vietnam, God began to open Dad’s mind through the literature he was receiving from the Church of God.
Over the years Dad was able to make the spiritual transition from physical soldier to Christian soldier, and he indeed defended the truths of God bravely.
With God, every day is Father’s Day
Sometimes there are things that are passed on to children by their parents that go completely unrecognized by both even though they should be obvious. Although my introduction to the truths of the Bible was given to me at an early age by my mother, it was sparring with my dad on biblical issues and principles in my latter years that allowed me to solidify my biblical comprehension. (Dad knew his Bible, and you had to know yours or he’d make you know it!)
Two Bible passages always come to mind now when thinking of Dad:
- Proverbs 22:6: “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.”
- Hebrews 12:9: “Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live?”
The first passage reminds me that we human beings tend to mimic our parents in so many ways, whether we are consciously aware of it or not. We pick up their good, neutral and bad habits. We mimic their way of walking, talking, even gesturing.
Fortunately, if they are making an attempt to follow God’s way consistently, we will parrot some of those behaviors even into adulthood. Hopefully we can internalize this good programming and consciously choose to follow God’s way ourselves.
The latter passage is a reminder that even when we lose our human father, we will never lose our spiritual Father. He is always there to guide and protect us, to bless us and correct us. He loves us and has not left us without a road map back home. He has given us His Son, His Holy Scriptures, His festival plan and His Holy Spirit to comfort us, particularly in times of loss. He will even reunite us with our earthly fathers at an appointed time.
So as Father’s Day approaches, let’s celebrate our fathers, the ones present and the ones past, always keeping in mind our Eternal Father who will make the future worldwide family reunion a reality. It’s never too early or too late for Father’s Day!
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Peter M. Gabriel is a member of the Houston North congregation of the Church of God, a Worldwide Association. He is married and is the coordinator of the local congregation’s newsletter, the Houston North Periodical Pictorial.
