What my son taught me about the Father’s Love

“You shall not mistreat any widow or fatherless child. If you do mistreat them, and they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry.” – Exodus 22:22-23

1. The same unexplainable love that pours from my deepest heart for my son extends infinitely greater from God’s heart to each and every person in creation

Until I grasped my son in my arms, I never understood the perspective of the Father’s love. I never knew what it felt like to care for someone so much, to hear their cries and want to do something so desperately to ease their pain. A world so new for my son, things that he didn’t understand, that he couldn’t see he was safe, I had him.

How often do I cry out – so unaware of things I can’t understand yet. And yet – our heavenly Father has me. Things I see as cold, scary, confusing – he sees beyond. He sees the greater need – Jesus – and sent Him so that I could be who He created me to be. So I could truly know Him, truly love Him, truly be with Him, truly serve Him and Him alone.

2. Being a father requires me to be self-less – to give all. And the same way I do this for my son, Christ has called me to lay down my life (John 15) for the sake of His kingdom.

As my wife and I have moved to this phase of little sleep – in the midst of the crankiness we always come back to how deeply we love our son. And yet – all around us there are those who have never felt love – a love as small as an earthly father to their son. How much for them to know the greatest love ever – the love of displayed by Christ on the cross when He took the full wrath of God upon Himself.

The student who believes he would find love in a hetero, homo, bi, trans relationship needs someone to step into their life and display the unconditional love of Christ on the cross. The bully who has been emotionally abused at home needs a parent from the church to not forbid this child from being apart of their family’s life but speak the truth of the Gospel (GOOD NEWS!) into this child’s life and display what it looks like to discipline for the sake of training the child in the way they should go.

While my son is such a true blessing – the greater blessing is the journey He has allowed me to be on the past six years and hopefully the next sixty years to come. That I could step into the lives of students and their families and share the greatest hope and greatest love – that they would feel the embrace of the Father infinitely greater than the embrace as I hold my son.