|
 June
18, 2006
A
Father's Perspective
by Aaron
Brockett
Click, click…it is a sound that
I don’t want to hear, but it is an unfortunate reality that
is beginning to turn into a pattern within our family. Here is
how it usually goes down…my wife, our three year old son,
and one year old daughter will be spending the night in a hotel.
My wife will go down to the lobby to get some ice, leaving me
alone with our children in the hotel room. I will get busy with
something, only to look up and see that my three year old has
just managed to open the heavy “security” door. When
I call his name and tell him not to leave the room, he somehow
interprets this as his cue to take off into a full sprint out
into the hallway. Without thinking, I will run out into the hallway
after him only to hear the door “click” behind me,
locking my one year old daughter in the hotel room all alone.
And then there is this brief moment that I experience between
grabbing him and then frantically sprinting down the stairs to
get another key from the front desk in which I ponder the challenges
of being a father…and I wonder if I really have what it
takes to shape the little lives God has privileged me to steward.
Being a father has also taught me more about the theology of God’s
love than any book or sermon. For starters, my relationship with
my children is unlike any relationship that I’ve ever had
with anyone else. In every relationship that I’ve had in
my life, I have grown to love someone by spending time with them
and investing in that particular person. This hasn’t been
the case with my children, from the first time I laid eyes on
them when they were born; I was instantly head over heels in love
with them. They hadn’t done anything to earn my love, I
couldn’t carry on a conversation with them, and we had no
history together, but I knew without even thinking about it that
I would die for them if I had to. It is such a powerful emotion
that few can explain it, but most parents can understand it.
In those moments when my children push the boundaries of my parental
skills I cling to my sanity, remind myself how crazy I am about
them, and try to guide them into maturity. It is also in those
same moments that God subtly reminds me that he is doing the same
with me. From the first time he laid eyes on you and me he was
instantly head over heals in love. God knew that he would die
for you if he had to…and actually he did. We are reminded
that he isn’t some distant being in a far off land, he is
a Father, and he is guiding you and me into maturity.
List
of Other Looking Back Articles |
Children