As Father’s Day is near, I’m remembering a boy named Theodus. A few years ago I was a weekly visitor to Theodus’s fifth grade class. After reading the stories of historical heroes, I asked the class to write an essay on who was their hero and why. I expected many essays about sports or entertainment superheroes. To my delight every student wrote about real life or historical heroes. The essays were thoughtful and inspiring. But Theodus’s essay was a standout.
Earlier in that school year, Theodus’s father had been tragically killed in an auto accident on Interstate 10. Theodus wrote that he missed his father and always would, but he went on to say he had another father, a father in heaven who would always be there for him. He said his father in heaven gave him hope that one day he would see both his fathers in heaven.
At the end of the school year the children wrote me thank you notes for reading to them. Once again Theodus was a standout. Along with his very thoughtful note, he gave me a small plastic cross with the word “hope” in the middle of it. I often think of Theodus and learned recently that he had graduated from college.
Theodus was given a gift from someone in his life. Someone taught him that he had a father in heaven who would always be there for him. As Vacation Bible School begins, I’m thinking about all the children who will come. Friends, if you have an opportunity, I hope you will share with a child that they have a father in heaven, who is the father of hope and unfailing love.
This Father’s Day I’m thinking, too, about all those in our church family whose own fathers are no longer with them. I’m thinking of those whose fathers failed them in one way or another, and I’m thinking of those whose fathers were, or are, their heroes.
Isaiah 49:15 reminds us that whether our mother or father might forget us, leave us, or fail us, God never will, for each our names is engraved upon God’s hand. If you have been or were blessed with a loving earthly father, be grateful. But I hope you also know your father in heaven as your hero, as does Theodus, that wise little boy, now a man, whose hope in God gave him hope for himself. Let’s you and I teach our children and grandchildren this truth, shall we?
Blessings,
Pastor Alyce
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