Shade Tree Wisdom 6/19/10

On Mothers Day records show the most long distance phone calls are made. BUT, on Father’s Day the most collect long distance phone calls are placed. Seems children still depend on Dad. Mmmm.

When our first grandchildren were growing, we often had them over for an overnight visit. We’d do things with them, go to the Mall, go bowling, go sight seeing. One of the features of their visit was breakfast at some fast food place. At the end of the meal when the check came I would reach for it and say, “I am waiting for the day when you will reach for this and say, “Grandpa, this time it’s on us”. It became sort of an in-house joke with us.

Well, they went through school, high school, and college, and the oldest one graduated and got a job. Life went on.

Then one day the phone rang and he was calling to say, “I want to have dinner with you tonight, so please plan on it. I will leave work a bit early and be there at 5.”

Wonderful. Around 4:30 he called from the car and was stuck in slow traffic because of a major accident on I-45. He’d be a bit late. At 5 he called again and said, “Do you mind meeting me at the restaurant? I’ll be there in about 35 minutes." So we drove over, and we met there and had dinner. We caught up on life in general and chatted about this and that. At the end the waitress brought the check and he reached for it and said with a grin, "Remember all those breakfasts we had and you’d always have a line for us. Well, Grandpa, this time it really is on Me.”

Funny how moments like that sort of stick in the memory, and Father’s Day brought it all to the fore.

In his letter to the Church at Thessalonica St. Paul speaks how he taught them and especially how he treated them. He said he did not flatter them, but “we were gentle among you” chapter 2,7, and then he adds we treated you “as a father does his children” v.11.

The Bible, espcially the Book of Proverbs, is filled with advice for fathers in families. The first chapter urges, “The fear of the Lord s the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction”. 1,7.

That really says it all, does it not? For when there is fear of the Lord, that means we hold Him in awe and revere Him as the Almighty God. We yearn to increase in true knowledge, growing in grace, as St. Peter writes it. And we look first to His Book for learning and understanding.

The rest follows, “But fools despise wisdom and instruction.” Sad, but true. Paul speaks of hard hearts, and never learning.

I trust we have fathers who speak and teach that wisdom first of all, for that we can and do thank God. I pray this is true for you.

So, Happy Father’s Day.

GPD 6/19/10