Fathers and Dads

From a pastor friend of mine...


It's Not What You Say, It's What They Hear Dept.: A Korean mother was talking to her son's kindergarten teacher at the North Avenue Christian School. Sometime that morning, the teacher had explained to her students that only Christians go to Heaven. The five year old heard the word 'Korean' instead of 'Christian'. He then went home and told his mother that dad wasn't going to Heaven because he's not Korean and his teacher said only Koreans go to Heaven. Both mom and the teacher had a good laugh over it.

"Pastor Doug, did you know there's a difference between a dad and a father?", an eleven year old girl asked me. "A dad is someone who's there for you, you can depend on him. But a father is someone who's hardly ever there and is really no fun to be with."

I knew the girl who was talking to me. Her biological father had been a very angry and abusive person. Mom left him years ago and eventually remarried. Her stepdad loves her and her younger brother as if they were his own. Being a little older and a little bolder now, with a greater understanding of who she is in Christ, this girl had recently confronted her biological father, asking him over the phone why he never comes to see her. His response was to get angry and blame her mother for "poisoning her mind against him". She didn't see anything wrong with asking him what she did. I didn't, either.

"Okay," I replied, "But if that's your definition of a father, then what do you do with the fact the Bible says God is our Father?"

"Oh," she said without hesitation, "He's a dad, not a father."

Yes, there's a 'father ' side to God. He can be very staid and serious, a righteous judge who doesn't fool around with evil. Definitely not 'fun'. But aren't you glad He's also a 'dad'; merciful, caring, faithful to His kids no matter what? May we have the wisdom to know how to present both to a world which desperately needs to hear both.

Light on,

Doug