A Father Who Never Leaves

“I love you.” His voice reassures as he tenderly kisses my forehead.

Hopeful imagination of my biological father. A time he was absent in the life of me and my twin sister.

A girl can dream.

Being young in age and the passing of time have a way of causing memories to escape. I had forgotten what he was like.

We moved from Texas to Virginia and were fortunate to have a wonderful stepfather come into our lives. A man who, along with my mother, cared for and loved us as if we were his own daughters. To this day, I am grateful for him.

But line 7 of my birth certificate held a name.

Different from my children’s certificates of live birth which list the mother’s name first, directly following child’s name. My certificate from The Bureau of Vital Statistics, Texas Department of Health, lists the father’s name first, directly following my name.

This piece of paper has been filed; proving my existence by documenting birth and the names of my mother and father. There are no blank spaces.

My life held a blank space and my heart an empty place. The space meant for a biological father.

The man on line 7 came back into my life when I was in elementary school, seeing him every other weekend.

An atheist, my father did not believe in God. Truths about God’s existence and love were introduced to me by my mother, friends in school, and as we started attending a small-town church in Big Stone Gap, Virginia. Both my parents had grown up there and my father lived nearby in a Tennessee city.

At 16—about the time I begin to address my biological father as “Dad”—I attended a church service. Hearing the gospel message of Jesus Christ, who was sent by His Father, loving me completely and dying on a cross for me.

The love I craved. I became a daughter of the Most High God. A child of the Heavenly Father. No longer a spiritual orphan.

“How great is the love the Father has lavished on us that we should be called children of God!” 1 John 3:1 NIV

I began to pray for my father to believe in God and accept Christ. When I was 32 (a 16-year prayer), my father finally realized there was a God. A God who loved him and wanted him.

It wasn’t Father’s Day, but what an unforgettable father’s day it was! The day my father became a child of God.

In 2010, 5 days before Christmas, my father passed away. The man listed on my birth certificate was in the presence of my Heavenly Father and his Heavenly Father. His birth and name on file, documented in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

Maybe your earthly father abandoned you, short or long-term, physically or emotionally. Perhaps you never knew your father or like my father, he has left this world. You may have a fulfilling relationship with your father, stepfather, adopted father, or a father-figure in your life (or possessed when they were alive). What a blessing. But regardless of your earthly father-child experience; God, The Father cannot be compared.

God is infinitely better qualified to occupy your blank spaces and empty heart with His love and presence.

The Bureau of Vital Statistics, Heaven’s Department of Life, has listed The Father’s name first, directly following your name. Has your certificate of live spiritual birth been filed?

“I love you.” Calvary’s cross reassures as God tenderly kisses your forehead.

A Father who never leaves.

© 2015 by Karen Friday