WHO'S YOUR DADDY?

"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'm so glad our daddy can do so many different things. He can do just about anything!" Catie and Becca, two of Todd's four daughters, agreed with each other that their daddy is 'so cool'!

Children demonstrate the love their fathers lavish on them. Our boys loved to wrestle with their dad. Our grandsons love to wrestle with their dads. I used to wrestle the boys when they were small, but no more. I do have to admit losing an arm wrestling battle recently. Pictures of Dennis centering the football to David and Todd (and vice versa) dot our early family albums. Guess what! The crowd gathers during football season to see who can cheer loudest for their team while they eat Poppy's chili dogs.

Our youngest grandson, Luke, makes really good pancakes. He's a lot like his Poppy. He'll just have to work on his chili skills.

Our granddaughters come in the house hugging me. I like that! They wrestle sometimes too, but mostly they show their love in different ways even tho' Becca claims she's 'not a girly girl'. Our granddaughters sing a lot whatever they're doing. They dearly love to write notes and letters and they like to read. If I want to find my pencils or pens, I follow the clues to paper sources and there I locate my writing utensils along with loving notes. Occasionally I find a note to a sibling that isn't in the least bit loving. I shake my head and wait for an opportune moment to address the issue. All of our grandchildren are very bright. I don't think they got that from me.

My Daddy lavished his great love for me by teaching me stuff like horseback riding, driving the tractor, riding a bicycle and he loved throwing any kind of ball. We'd play catch and he taught me that when I needed something to do but had nobody to do it with, I could throw a tennis ball at the house and the house would throw it back to me. Good way to spend alone time. Our boys spent many hours shooting baskets in our drive-way. I can still hear the "whack, thump, whack, thump."

On my refrigerator is an old black and white photo of a five or six year old blond headed little girl sprawled out on her daddy's lap in her Sunday best. Lavished love on a Sunday afternoon. There's another old black and white photo of Dennis' dad in what looks to be a basketball or track uniform with a Mountain View School logo. My goodness, we've come full circle.

How does our Heavenly Father lavish His love? ..."that we should be called the children of God". What does 'lavish' mean? It means: plentiful, generous, abundant, extravagant, over-the-top, unrestrained.

Allow me to personalize this somewhat. 'How over-the-top my Abba lays bare His love for me by allowing me to be His child eternally'. My Heavenly Father loves me so extravagantly that He allows me to use His Name and become like Him. Everybody knows that the children resemble the parents at some point or another whether by nature or by nurture. I'm told I favor my parents. My sons resemble their parents somewhat and their children surely do resemble them in more ways than one.

My soul and body! Maybe one day I'll resemble my Heavenly Father. Seems it's a long way off, but the WORD clearly states:"we should be called the children of God". "...and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator." (Col. 3:10) Over-the-top LOVE!
My Daddy can do anything! Who's your daddy?