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Intro

• Father’s Day melancholy

As many of you already know, my father passed away this past year.  Even though it’s already been 9 months, I confess to you the thought of his absence hasn’t quite settled in my mind.  Grief is typically a rather long and surprising journey.  Long, because as anyone who’s ever lost someone to death knows, the end won’t fully come until we’re reunited with our loved ones in the eternal Kingdom of God.  Surprising because grief has the unfortunate ability to recede for a period of time only to come roaring back at a moment’s notice.  A thought, a remembrance, seeing someplace that had been special to the two of you, these thoughts enter our mind suddenly.  And, while the recollection is momentarily sweet, it also returns with a dram of the pain, the absence, the longing.  So, it is a rather odd day for me.  My family will gather.  We will celebrate the fathers among us.  But we will all, in our own way, be filled with a sense of longing.

• Good fathers can help us understand more about God.
  • “I have TWO fathers” – the little one and the big one.
    • Not too often I get called “little” but she was right on the money

Fathers

• Provide
  • Blessed to have a dad that was a “good provider”
    • Blessed to have a fortunate upbringing
      • Nice home, private school, gave us an appreciation for art and culture, taking us to NYC and other places
    • But he, just like any dad, made mistakes while providing for us
      • Mixing Spaghetti O’s and Mac n’ Cheese
        • Burned it
      • I’ve made myriad mistakes as a dad – once sending my wife and kids to a birthday party location in a completely different town than the actual event was being held in.
      • Our Father in Heaven’s provision never leaves us, never abandons us
        • Creation
      • Genesis 9:3 (Noah gets off the Ark) – “Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything.”
      • 2 Corinthians 9:8 – “And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.”
      • Last week, we talked about the problem of scarcity. Knowing that God is a God of provision, as I said last week, scarcity may be a problem, but it isn’t for Christians. 
    • Protect
      • My sister and I were home alone.
        • Power went off, our minds started swirling
        • An odd-looking stranger rang the doorbell
        • Then a thunderstorm rushed in (probably why power went)
        • Dad came home from the airport, suit-on and bag-in-hand.
          • He came into the house and it was like sweet relief.
        • His very nature was comforting to us,
      • Isaiah 54:17 – “no weapon forged against you will prevail, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and this is their vindication from me," declares the Lord.