On the Day Before Father's Day

On the day before Father's Day, I am sitting here looking at old photographs.

I've prepared for worship tomorrow.  I have a sermon and a Bible study and some notes in the margins of the bulletin, reminding me of extra things, like the announcement about Vacation Bible School, and the young woman who is going to thank us for helping support her college education.

I've got a few old pictures of my father, too.  The one I am looking at now is a picture of my dad and me, when I was a baby.  I am just lying there, and my dad is bending over me, with his trademark curl hanging over the front of his face.  We are making faces at each other.

I love this picture, for so many reasons.  I love it because it captures my dad's sense of delight.  He did like to make faces, not just at me, and he liked to tell stories, and he liked to talk in different funny accents.  He was the Jewish grandmother, and the Swedish grandmother (he seemed to have a lot of grandmother voices), and he was all of the voices he remembered from the old radio programs in the 30s.

I love this picture because we are looking at each other, too.  I'm just a baby; maybe I haven't even been baptized yet.  But I can tell he loves me; he's my dad, and he thinks I'm all right.  We're a Scandinavian family, and I am sorry to say that we haven't always been that demonstrative.  But I can see his love in this picture.

I also love this picture because I think my dad is handsome.  I am not sure other people can see it in this picture.  But I can.  I have a few other old pictures that I love as well.  There is a picture of my dad standing in his TV and Radio Repair shop, with a whole bunch of radios behind him.  It's a color picture, and I believe it was taken before I was born.  When I looked at that picture, I think, "My dad was a looker."

I am preparing for worship tomorrow, and it seems like it is going to be a busy day.  It's Father's Day, and It is also Juneteenth, the day that the news of emancipation got to Texas.  There will be a special offering, and I really hope that we have a big turnout for our cross generational Vacation Bible School evenings.  And I am preaching on Galatians, what it means to be children of God.

Children of God.

There are so many things I want to say.  There are so many things I want to say, about justice, and the worth of all people.

But really, if you want to know, what I want people to know, every single day, is captured in that picture of me and my dad:  This is how the Father loves you.  With delight and abandon, not counting the cost, the Father looks at you, whoever you are, and says You Are All Right.

That's all I want everyone to know.

Every single day.  Every single minute.