When I wrote this post last week about getting sick and how hard it can be on a mom, I forgot to mention one very important thing that helps make the days so much better. Or someone, I should say. Micah has one awesome dad.
I've known for the five years we've been married that I've had an awesome husband. There is no doubt about that. He shows me love in so many ways. This past week he did all the cooking and cleaning when I was too sick to move and slept next to me on the couch while I slept propped up in the recliner (because coughing and pregnancy and reflux don't mix). He doesn't just speak his love, he shows me. And I'm so grateful for that.
But what gets my heart even more excited, is that this man is the father of my children.He is the one they get to call, daddy.
I'll be honest, I wasn't one of those girls who married a man because I thought he'd be a good dad. That wasn't even on my radar at the time. Everyone knows I married my husband because of his good looks and charm. ;) (Kidding... kinda.)
But while I still love the many qualities that first attracted me to my husband, the ones that I find myself falling more in love with these days are ones I never even imagined being "romantic."
Like, when he gets out of bed first in the morning to pick up Micah from his crib. Or sits on the couch with him and a cup of Cheerios while singing the "Elmo song" together. Not reacting with anger when said cup of Cheerios gets dumped all over him. Teaching Micah to play ball. Giving him a bath. Changing dirty diapers. And cleaning up the endless amount of toys all over his room.
All the things my husband does are really things that both of us do, but he never just looks at them as "my duties." And that's what I love the most. He sees his role as a father as equal to mine. But, I think it's even more important.
A daddy represents the closest earthly example we have to our Heavenly Father. God is referred and compared numerous times in Scripture to a father. I believe this earthly relationship can and has been taken for granted in our culture today.
Many fathers are more identified by the jobs they do than by being the fathers that they are. Even though they are not often seen as the ones toting children around in Moby wraps or pushing them in strollers - many times they are the ones paying for those wraps and strollers. They are the ones spending countless hours a day apart from their children, so that they can come home and know that they have been fed, changed, clothed and taken care of without a worry of how it will be paid for. They are providing benefits for their families every day of their life. Some won't be seen until they are no longer living.
If this isn't an example of what our Heavenly Father does for us every day, I don't know what is.
This isn't to say every man has taken his role of father seriously. Because the sad truth is 1 out of every 3 children lives apart from their father. And that number is higher or lower depending on the demographic. And just to offer a comparison... in 1960, only 1 out of 10 children lived apart from their fathers.
This statistic breaks my heart.
Whether by choice or force, something is splitting children away from their daddys. We know the enemy of this world wants to destroy our lives. What better way than to sabotage the only earthly example of a loving, compassionate Father that we have?
That's where the similarities end.
God will never leave and never turn His back on us. His love is unfailing. Nothing can separate us.
For many children the word "father" is painful. Filled with a longing and desire that was never fulfilled for them on this earth. But the good news that is offered by salvation in Jesus Christ is not just of the eternal kind. Oh no, my friend. The good news is that those who have once been fatherless, are now given the greatest love of all by a Heavenly Father.
And just like my son running into the arms of my husband every time he walks in the door from work... they get to call him, "daddy."
