When a child is born, a father is also born. A mother is born too, of course, but at least she has had nine months to grasp what is going on. But for even for the father who is somewhat prepared, the baby is born in a moment. He or she is about the size of a football. The parents think the baby is cute. The baby may or may not have any hair. The baby is also a child of God.
Even if the father should decide to abandon the baby ten minutes after the baby is born, the knowledge that he is a father of a child he never got to know will plague him for the rest of his days. He has experienced creation. He even has his mark upon creation and creation has its mark upon him. Both marks are, for better or worse, impossible to remove.
When the father lays down the law, the father knows that someday his children will break it as they need to break it if ever they’re to find something better to replace it. Most all father’s intuitively know that grace is much better than the law. Until and unless that happens, there’s no telling the scrapes they will get into trying to lose him and find themselves. Terrible blunders will be made – disappointments and failures, hurts and losses of every kind. And they’ll keep making them even after they’ve found themselves too, of course, because growing up is a process that goes on and on. And every hard knock they ever get knocks the father even harder still if that’s possible, and if and when they finally come through more or less in one piece at the end, there’s not much rejoicing greater than this in all creation.
Today is sixteen weeks out from the Twin Cities Marathon. The Marathon Blog begins today. The race is Sunday, October 7th. I can't wait! Tonight was an easy night. I meant to go this morning, but didn't have my sermon done. I did 7.38 miles in 54 minutes in the dark at Lake Zorinsky. Thanks to Amber, Benjamin, and David for making this day special.
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