Fathers can be useful. True, they don’t always say yes. And they can be embarrassing when they try to outdo teenagers. On the whole they are a big help. They help us assemble Airfix kits. They show us how to repair punctures to bicycle tyres. They change fuses while we watch and learn etc etc. We can’t really do without them.
That’s not all. They change. As we grow up, we see things differently. To start wiih, our fathers are distant. Mother means all. Gradually fathers come into the picture. They bring with them aspects we recognise – all-knowing, all-powerful, protecting, guarding, guiding. We become teenagers and we take on anew comprehension of the fatherly person. He doesn’t know everything or everyone. He suffers disappointment. He forgets he has us to look after. Finally we become friends: friends who give and take advice; friends who stick together against opponents. Blood is thicker than water. Family comes first.
Jesus taught us to pray, saying ‘Our Father’. He did not say ‘My Father’. We have a monopoly of that term but it can be extended to include those who are baptized in water as well as others. We pray with them to our Originator, who gave us breath. We are creatures, dependent for years on our parents who stand in for our Maker. Our Originator has other things to attend to than our little concerns. None the less, he notices the fall of a sparrow and his care for us does not slacken.
The time comes when we stand on our own two feet. Father now may find fatherhood difficult. He declines while his offspring live their own lives. The father becomes redundant, except for emergencies If we are adopted, we know we have been chosen. There is another kind of adoption we may all benefit from (Romans 8.15).
We use other patterns of speech. So did Jesus. We have to remember that he too used words, slippery though they may be in our thought and speech. We think of our Maker and Redeemer. We know that we shall never lose that connection, even if it is part of the mystery that is inseparable from our being. We have to wrestle with the mystery, whatever label we . happen to give it.
BERWICK OPEN DAYS
Berwick-on-Tweed is holding open days from 16-18 September. It will include the parish church and Tweedmouth parish church where there will be a small exhibition for visitors between 11 a.m. and four p.m. Tweedmouth is one of the parishes served by Rachel Hudson. Every day this month a parishioner will speak of a psalm that has influenced them in a series of psalms for September.
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