Fathers

Father's Day is typically one that I dread. As mid-June approaches, people start posting about Father's Day and it is easy to focus on my own absence of a father. However, as I journey with my mom during this season, I have been reflecting upon the preciousness of life and the need for it to be engaged and celebrated.

It is crazy to think that my dad has been gone for 11 years now, but I am thankful for the ways in which his legacy lives on and for the love that he poured into and invested in me. I found these two photos recently while looking through old photographs and absolutely love them, because I have such fond memories of playing with my dad in water when I was a child. To this day, swimming is one of my favourite things, and I can remember hours spent in the pool or ocean with my dad. From jumping off his shoulders to jumping on him, they are really special memories that I cling to. As I have now started to go swimming my nieces and nephews, I see the neat connections that are built in spending long periods of time together doing something really fun.

Although as a child and teenager I didn't always understand how much my dad loved me, I see and understand this love reflected in watching the relationship between other fathers and their children. Even watching my own brothers as dads has been a picture of that special relationship.

So although I do not have my dad around to celebrate with this weekend, I celebrate the memory of our relationship and am filled with gratitude for all the things my dad taught me and for all the ways in which he cared for and loved me. I'm thankful for not only some of the physical characteristics I received from him (like my blue eyes and curly hair), but also for some of the great values he instilled in me and for the way in which he loved and cared for others.

Furthermore, I celebrate all the men in my life who have stepped into my life for different times and seasons and poured into and mentored me in a fatherly manner. And I anticipate and am grateful for those who will do so in the future.

Ultimately, as I reflect on all these things, it becomes a beautiful picture of who God as our Heavenly Father is. No earthly father is perfect, but it is so neat to see glimpses of God's image as Father imprinted on men as father and mentors for others.

So, Happy Father's Day! May you celebrate together and also remember this weekend!