Daily Devotional

Our baby girl, Lottie, turned six months old last week. People told me the time would fly by, and now I realize how right they were. It feels like yesterday that I was holding her for the first time.

The experience of being a father has been a tremendous joy to me. It’s not without its challenges and struggles: I miss the nights of uninterrupted sleep and having our evenings to ourselves. But the blessings of fatherhood are so many: holding my daughter in my arms as she falls asleep, seeing her face light up when I get home from work, and even hearing her say “Dada” two weeks ago. (Smart baby!) I’ve even loved seeing the delight my wife Lauren has in her role as a mother.

Fatherhood has come with some spiritual blessings, too. In particular, the biblical concept of God as our “heavenly Father” has taken on a new significance. This hit home one night in a sort of epiphany about a month after Lottie was first born.

For this story to make sense, you need to know something about Lottie. If you haven’t met our daughter, she is a very social baby. She LOVES being around people and has since she was born. The downside? Lottie has serious FOMO (fear of missing out) and will refuse to sleep, even when she’s exhausted because she doesn’t want to be alone or not part of what’s going on. Getting our overtired baby to give in and fall asleep has been our biggest parenting challenge so far.

So in this story, one-month-old Lottie was refusing to sleep, as usual. I was walking her around the perimeter of our studio apartment as she cried, trying to soothe her by singing hymns. Lottie was having none of it, pushing against me and wailing in her little tired voice. In that moment, I realized: what I am trying to do for Lottie is what God does for us. In his infinite wisdom, God knows our true needs, even if they aren’t what we want at that moment (just like Lottie needed sleep, even as she fought it). We may kick and scream and push against Him, but our Heavenly Father, always patient and kind, gently leads us in the way we should go, offering words of comfort and encouragement. My care and patience for poor Lottie in that moment was a window into the deeper, richer love that God has for us.

This is the same point that Jesus makes in Matthew 7. Just as an earthly father like me, sinner though he is, will not give his children a stone when they ask for bread, so also our Heavenly Father loves to care for and bless His children. The love of earthly fathers is a dim reflection of the glorious love of God for us. It’s why calling God “Our Father” in prayer is so profound.

That realization has made fatherhood even more of a blessing. Over the past six months, the realization that God is my Father and I am his beloved child is more real and more precious than ever. I pray that my love for my children would not only better mirror God’s patient, sacrificial love but would also remind me that God shows that same love towards me.

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English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.