We All Have a Father
- Dr. Isaac Hayes
- Jun 1
- 4 min read
No matter our experience with our earthly fathers, we can find comfort and hope on Father’s Day by celebrating our Heavenly Father's perfect love and care for us.
It’s been two years since my dad passed. I can’t say we had the best relationship, because he was pretty hard on me growing up. But we had a good relationship. It was not until his passing that I understood better why he was how he was. It didn’t make my life better, but it did provide context for the father I had.
Despite his shortcomings, he was the father God wanted me to have. His deep dedication to God, prayer, fasting, reading the Scriptures, teaching and preaching the Word, and living holy are forever ingrained in my spiritual DNA. I also exhibit some less-than-pleasant traits that came with the package at times. But I would not be who I am if he was not who he was.
Fathers are not perfect, and neither are moms. But we lavish more praise and appreciation upon moms because they carry us in their womb, care for us like momma bears, and love us like we are still their babies when we have grandbabies of our own. Dads, on the other hand, are like afterthoughts. They are there: steady, reliable, protecting, and providing for the tribe. Therefore, they deserve to be honored.
Fathers Deserve Honor Too
Father’s Day was born out of Mother’s Day because a daughter wanted to honor her dad, who raised six children by himself after their mom died in labor. Sonora Smart Dodd proposed the idea in 1909, and by 1972, it was signed into law as a national holiday.[1]
Despite their imperfections, the father’s role in the home is as essential as the mother’s. According to the National Fatherhood Initiative, nearly 25% of U.S. children have no father in the house. This puts children at greater risk of poverty, behavioral problems, abusing drugs and alcohol, dropping out of school, and going to prison.[2]
This data alarmingly reminds us that mothers should not raise their children alone. Unfortunately, many have to do so for various reasons. But the good news is that even if we grew up without the loving care of our biological or stepfathers, we still have a Father who loves us and is here for us.
God Is the Ultimate Father
We honor fathers because they are icons of a much greater Father. Jesus teaches us three important truths about our relationship with God that should bring peace and comfort to those whose hearts are heavy because our dads are no longer here or were never there.
1. God Is Our Father. While teaching His disciples how to structure their prayers, Jesus instructed them to begin by acknowledging their relationship with God. He is “Our Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 6:9, NASB). None of us is fatherless, because God is “our” Father. Theologically, He is our Father because He is the source of our existence. But Jesus is speaking from a posture of intimacy by focusing on our relationship with God. He is more than our progenitor; He is also our provider and protector. It is His lap we can sit in, His shoulder we can cry on, and His presence we can run to in times of trouble. So, as a good, good Father, He is already aware of what we require.
2. God Knows What We Need. Because God is “in heaven,” we sometimes feel like He is clueless as to what is happening on earth. But Jesus informs us that our “Father knows what [we] need before [we] ask Him” (Matthew 6:8, NASB). It would be easy to simply dismiss this as the outcome of God’s omniscience, and God indeed knows all things at all times. But we miss the intimacy of God’s fatherliness if we fail to appreciate Him knowing what we need because He is watching over us. God is not an absentee dad. He looks after us like a father at the park, monitoring our actions, observing our surroundings, and proactively caring for us. Thus, our prayers do not inform Him of our needs because He already knows what’s best for us.
3. God Knows What to Give Us. Our earthly fathers provide us with an imperfect model of our Heavenly Father, so even their better qualities still fall short of His goodness. Jesus highlighted this gap by explaining, “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!” (Matthew 7:11, NASB).
Good and great dads do their best to give their children the best they can. They work overtime, borrow money at exorbitant rates, and make great sacrifices to provide us with what we want on top of what we need. Even still, God far surpasses the most celebrated dad in His desire to supply us with all that is good for us. Unlike our earthly fathers, who may give us something we want but may not be suitable for us, our Heavenly Father knows what’s best for us and will only give us what is good for us.
Father’s Day Can Still Be Father’s Day
I would love to have my father with me this Father’s Day. I miss going to the restaurant and watching him give the waiter a hard time as my sister and I look cross-eyed at each other across the table. I’m sure many of you have similar sentiments. Others of you may have never celebrated Father’s Day with your dad. Some of your dads may still be alive, and you may or may not plan to spend the day with them. Whatever this year’s Father’s Day looks like and feels like for you, remember that we all have a Father we can celebrate.
Dr. Isaac Hayes is an Assistant Pastor at the Apostolic Church of God in Chicago, Illinois, and author of Men After God’s Heart: 10 Principles of Brotherly Love. He also has a Doctor of Ministry degree from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. Follow Dr. Hayes on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube at @RevIsaacHayes.
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