Father’s Day is to stop the clock, honour and appreciate our fathers and those who have played a fatherly role in our lives. It is a good day and certainly a sad for many. It is also an opportunity to reflect on the ultimate Father who is God. He is the God that is nothing but love, provision, protection and more.
Our earth fathers must take God’s lead on loving, providing and protecting His children. Yes, they will never be as perfect as God, but we all know that where our effort and ability end is where and when God’s power, strength and Grace activate and take over.
I wonder if there has ever been a season such as this one we are living in where there are more and more children without fathers or father figures. The fathers are alive but fail to be actively involved in the children’s lives, in creating and building homes. It is a sad and heartbreaking reality.
Jesus and His Fathers
Jesus is the Son of God, the same God we all call Our Heavenly Father (as Jesus taught us). Jesus is also referred to as the carpenter’s son. He was a son of a man who was in the trade of building and creating. In this present time, do we have enough sons and daughters who are recoginsed by who their father is? Jesus’ life, and the result of His relationship with both God the Father and Joseph the carpenter, portray the importance of the role of fathers and the legacies they are expected to create and build – not only through honouring their children but most importantly, in honouring the role and responsibility God the Father has bestowed them.
Could it be that God made Joseph to be a carpenter so that his role of being Jesus’ father sends a clear message God wants to portray? That the fathers’ responsibilities are to love their children, teach their children and build families, homes and communities.
Joseph the Father
Perhaps Joseph’s role is also to teach men to love and nurture children despite blood relations. Could it be that God chose to impregnate The Virgin Mary, who was about to be married by Joseph, to also emphasise that without a father’s involvement, the structure of a home, family, community, and a child’s life is incomplete? And that just as Joseph was instrumental in parenting Jesus, who was not his biological son, so it should be for each father, each man – to take up the role of creating and building homes, influencing, impacting and nurturing children positively no matter their relation?
The influence and role of a father go beyond the title. It demands that fathers teach children values such as love, integrity, compassion and justice. When good fathers are present, children learn moral values and grow into adults who influence and build good homes too. When they build good homes, they automatically create good communities and neighbourhoods and contribute to a just and compassionate world – this is the role of a father.
Maybe if the fathers of this time took their role for what God intended it to be, today’s children would also grow up to create, build exemplary lives and leave generationally impactful legacies as Jesus did. He built the Church and changed lives for the better. A father’s role is to build and nurture children that will change communities and therefore the world at large.
Our Fathers
On this Father’s Day, may we honour God the Father, Joseph the Carpenter and Jesus the Son. May we celebrate and honour the fathers who have taken Jesus as their example to love, protect and provide for their children and communities. May we encourage our sons, brothers, cousins and those in our influence, to do better, to take Jesus’ and Joseph the carpenter’s baton of building good legacies for generational life-changing impact.
May we Pray for, love and support those children who yearn for an earthly father. May we encourage and give Grace to the fathers who are genuinely trying to father better.
May we start experiencing the fathers we wish to have and continuously show Gratitude to the Father that is God, the Lord and King of kings – our Daddy.
Fathers are for Good Change is by Written by Pastor Karein Jafta – Founder and visionary of Lady K Wellness & Kea MM – Founder and Executive Director: arise Magazine and Christian Women Business Network
