Today is Father’s Day, and my son will be giving me a gift. I know this because he’s barely been able to contain himself all week. On at least two occasions he’d have presented his gift early if he’d been allowed. He’ll get excited, grin ear to ear, and start bouncing like he’s standing barefoot on hot pavement.
I really don’t know what he has in store, but I already know it’s perfect. It could be a hand-made card, maybe a hammer from the dollar store; a box of screws is possible.
Whatever the gift might be, its perfection won’t lie in the gift, but in the heart of the giver. I know that my son wants to please me, but more poignantly, I know he wants me.
In the story of The Prodigal, two sons both wanted the father’s things, but neither wanted the father. The younger son obtained the father’s things, squandered the father’s things, and returned home broke and broken to seek employment as a hired hand.
After being unexpectedly welcomed by the father, receiving the finest robe and being fully restored, the son realized that his joy, his fulfillment, was not found in the father’s things, but in relationship with the father…Relationship…Desire to be with the father.
My son has not yet wrestled through all the materialistic temptations this world offers, nor does he fully understand the difference between desire for the father and the father’s things. However, this Father’s Day his true desire is evident, at least to me. His gift is perfect; I wonder what it is….
Happy Father’s Day.
John Monday
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