Father's There

From "Multiple Appeal," the newsletter of the Memphis Area Mothers of Multiples (June 2004 issue)
Chaplain's Corner column

This is my first Father's Day without my Dad, who died last summer in a car accident.  As I think about the upcoming holiday, a childhood memory keeps coming back to me.

I remember the summer I learned to swim at the East Memphis YMCA.  I was wiry, spunky, and took to water like the "Minnow" my class was called.  I'd been eyeing the big kids and the high dive for weeks and decided to stake my claim and climb that ladder.  I waited until just the "right" moment . . . until Dad had come to pick me up and was watching from the other side of the fence.

Then I got cold feet.  Standing on the diving board, looking way, way, WAY down, I started questioning if I really wanted to do this or not.  Or more truthfully, was I too scared to do it?  My father said something along the lines of :  "If you're going to do it, do it.  But don't be scared."

Did I jump off of the diving board or did I negotiate my way back down that ladder?  That's not the point.  The point is that Dad was letting me know that as my father, he didn't want me to let fear keep me from doing what I wanted to do . . .  but that he wasn't going to climb that ladder and get my scrawny booty outta trouble either.  He would let me figure out what I had to do with his watchful eye over me.

God's like that sometimes, I think.  Like Dads here on Earth, our Heavenly Father watches over us, even if He chooses not to always deliver us immediately from the messes of our own making.  He wants us to have the courage to exercise the choices we know are best in our lives and the faith to know that He is three for us all the time.

Just like our dear old Dads.