Father’s Day.

Today is Father’s Day.

Today is Ted’s first Father’s Day.

Today is exactly one month since Sam was born to Jesus.

Every Sunday that passes is another week that we are learning to live with the loss of Sam.  Neither Ted or I were particularly excited for this day to come.  With heavy hearts, we push through this holiday – thankful for our Fathers – but missing Sam.  While we scroll through the pages of Facebook to see our friends with their precious babies, we visit ours in a cemetery.

When the weekend started Ted shared with me how he knows he’s a Father but doesn’t always feel like a Dad.  As Sam’s Mama, I’ve silently shared in his same feelings; a Mother but maybe not a Mom.  We both know the life we’re missing out on without Sam and the responsibilities that come with raising a child that we still don’t have the privilege of experiencing.

But the more I thought about the notion of being a parent the more I’ve come to understand that we’re both wrong.  The foundation of my family has always been one of love.  The essence of our heavenly father is love.  There is no doubt in my mind that during the last month Ted and I have experienced a love that is greater and deeper than we ever have known before. 

We love Sam.

Ted isn’t just a father, he’s a Dad.

I’m not just a Mother, but a Mom.

Today I’ve reflected on God’s love for us as His children.  Paralleling God’s love for us to mine and Ted’s for Sam.

As we celebrate Father’s Day, we celebrate God.

“You received God’s spirit when He adopted you as His own children.  Now we call Him, “Abba, Father.”  For His spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children.  And since we are his children, we are his heirs.  In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory.  But if we are to share His glory, we must also share His suffering.”

Oh, how much He must love us to adopt us into His family!  Not just me and Ted but everyone. .Sam included.  God calls us His own children and identifies himself as our Dad.  With God, we share in His goodness and in His death.  With us, God shares in our good times and in our pain.

Paul continues, “Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory He will reveal to us later. . . With eager hope, the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in the glorious freedom from death.  For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth. .We. .groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from. .suffering.  And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness.  . .The Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s own will.

As his children, we can be eager in our hope of who God is and what He promises us; freedom from death.  As our Dad, God knows our suffering and suffers with us.  He promises us glory that will surpass what we suffer now.  How sweet it is that we are able to gain a glimpse of our future with our Father through the Holy Spirit.

Paul concludes, “Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love?  Does it mean He no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity. .or threatened with death?  No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.  I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love.  Neither death nor life. .neither fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow – not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love.  . .Nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ.”

This Father’s Day I am thankful for this good news.  This Father’s Day I am thankful our God has conquered the grave.  This Father’s Day I am thankful we have a Dad who loves us so much that nothing can ever separate us.  Not just victory, but overwhelming victory over our pain, belongs to me and to Ted, simply because God loves us.

I love you, Ted.  I can’t imagine experiencing life with anyone but you.  God blessed us with Sam and made you a Dad – not just any Dad, but Sam’s.  Your love for Sam continues to shine in our darkness by the overwhelming love you’ve offered me, by the grace you exemplify daily and in your confident trust in Jesus.  Sam is lucky you’re his.  I am lucky you’re mine. 

Happy Father’s Day, my love.