AS A FATHER HAS COMPASSION
Father’s Day is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year on June 19, and it all began when a young woman wanted to honor her dad.
In May of 1909, Sonora Smart Dodd of Spokane, Wash., sat in church listening to a Mother’s Day sermon. —Dodd’s mother had died in childbirth, and Dodd’s father, a Civil War veteran, had taken the responsibility of singlehandedly raising the newborn and his other five children. The following year, Dodd wanted to celebrate Father’s Day —– and the first Father’s Day was celebrated on June 19, 1910, according to the Spokane Regional Convention and Visitor Bureau.
In 1924, President Calvin Coolidge said that he supported it, in order to establish closer relationships between fathers and their children; ——- President Lyndon Johnson issued the first presidential proclamation honoring fathers in 1966, but it wasn’t until 1972 that President Richard Nixon signed the public law that made it a permanent holiday (1).
While it is true that some children have not had the most memorable experiences with their fathers, the relationship between either parent and their child is truly special. While mothers go through the difficulty of carrying children in their womb, giving birth to them and then nourishing them, fathers have an inborn tendency to love, protect and support their children throughout their lives. The references in the Bible comparing the love of a visible father with that of the invisible God are numerous.
‘As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him;—’(Psalms 103:13).
Compassion comes naturally to a father who recognizes his children as his own. Compassion involves love, forgiveness, protection, teaching, training and modeling. A child in turn looks up to a father as a role model, as some one who can be emulated to get through life and be successful. The role of either parent and the bond they create with their children determines the ultimate success of the children as they grow up to be adults.
Of course no parent is perfect, and that is where the comparison between God and the father is deficient. The father only provides a pathway for the child to ultimately look at God and in Christ, we see Deity perfected. In Him we see the perfection of love and forgiveness made complete on the cross. The greatest success of a father therefore is, when he is able to nurture and guide his children to find a strong and stable relationship with God in Christ, in which alone is the fullness of joy.
- https://www.livescience.com/10697-father-day-turns-100.html
