My Father

Sometimes I think my father is a part of the reason I believe in God.

Then I remember that I was a weird kid who would wander the playgrounds looking up at the sky and speaking God questions like, “Why don’t those girls want to be my friend? Why doesn’t everyone want to be everyone’s friend?”

My connection to God was innate from the beginning. But I think there are things that I saw in my father that strengthened my knowing and understanding of God, not just my connection to Him.

The way he went out of his way to spend whatever scrap of time he could with my sister and I –often at the expense of losing money for leaving work early and putting up with mom who made his life as much of a hell as she could.

The way he would tell me to stand on the bus so an elderly woman could sit there instead. The way he would let a disabled person go before us if we were standing in line at the grocery store. The way he would smile and say graciously, “No problem”, whenever he did these sorts of acts for people.

The way he’s a goofball who acts like a little kid sometimes and plays with his lego creations and tries to capture the flag WW2 style in an online video game.

His love of animals. The way he’s different like me and will instantly connect with a pet and utterly befriend them where other people in “polite society” will merely acknowledge the animal and say, “Oh yes I love dogs…”.

He has good spiritual insight sometimes. He just wants peace and for this world to stop tearing itself to shreds.

He is calm. 

He is patient. 

He is giving. 

He is caring.

He restores my faith in humanity-but especially MEN in particular. They often seem foreign to me the way they are foreign to their own souls.

I know he’ll look after those around him and do what’s ever needed to see that they are protected.

He isn’t boastful. To include the word in any sentence you would ever say of him appears like a stark contradiction, even when saying he isn’t that way. If he complains to you about anything, you know you’ve earned his deepest trust.

I see good in him. I see caring and genuine sincerity. I see patience and giving.

There are so many pieces of him that I know come from the light of God and shine onto his true nature.