I stood up from my desk and walked to the window of my office to survey the progress of the construction project on the playground below and to once again check the level of fluid in the ice tea glasses that teetered in their various places on the stacks of lumber. Mike’s dad had come over for the week to help build a deck cover on the roof and one over the play ground sand box to provide some much needed shade in the coming summer months. I suddenly realized that a tear was sliding unbidden down my cheek, I was thinking of all the times I have worked alongside my Daddy on so many projects and standing there at that moment I missed him terribly! I have been incredibly blessed to be raised in a family where we had the opportunity to develop many skills as we worked together. My Grandpa Bywater trained his sons well and over the years of doing so many of those projects I am convinced that my Daddy can do anything, and while he was doing “anything” he loved to have us right by his side, teaching us, talking with us, having an extra set of hands to “hold this” or “hand me that.”
Just as a skilled surgeon has a good team, we children soon learned all the names for the tools whether it was construction or mechanics so that Daddy could ask for what he needed and it was right there. Some of my earliest memories revolve around laying under the car with him looking up into an engine or sanding a piece of wood he had given me to “help him.” As we learned he eventually had to ask less and less, we simply knew what he would need next- he was taking his job of “training us up” very seriously. That training wasn’t just in the nuts and bolts of working hard but in the eternal lessons of teaching us to trust and depend on our Heavenly Father. By his character and his daily life, Daddy demonstrated the love that God has for each of us and through that example he gave me a living picture of my Abba God. In that moment by the window I missed having him close by, I missed the fact that I was not outside helping him, handing him tools, holding boards, hammering nails, or helping to measure and cut. Then in a flash I was crying because I live in a house filled with children who do not know their daddy, they do not have men around to live out the love of God right before their little eyes. These little ones are surrounded by women who have “mommy hearts” to love, care for, and protect them, to tenderly kiss away the hurts and wipe away the tears but they do not have “daddy hands” to scoop them up when they fall, to catch them in the air, to toss them high, and teach them how to hold a wrench or a fishing pole. My heart ached for them, that they are too young at this moment to know what they are missing…they are missing Daddy.
Then my Abba God quietly reminded me, “I AM the Father to the Fatherless.” They are not missing Him, He is their protector their provider and their Daddy God. I simply need to trust Him to provide for them in His way and His time and pray that they will learn to trust Him too. I brushed the tears away grabbed the pitcher of tea and the bag of ice and headed out to refill some big glasses, the men needed fluids and in just a little bit they would be ready for lunch…I had work to do. Daddy always said that men work harder if they are well fed and you keep the Mason jar on the lumber stack filled with something good to drink. Lessons learned well. I love you Daddy!
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