What a great weekend in being with my family!  Things are beginning to slow a bit now that summer is here, and after this next weekend (dance recital) things slow down tremendously.  Yesterday, my girls took me to Outback after the morning worship services.  Then we retreated to our house for cards and a few presents.  I love being loved by my kids. 

I loved our services yesterday.  God is a God of rescue, and I am so eternally grateful that He goes after the 1.  However, even in the joy of celebrating fathers and in the joy of picturing God as a shepherd carrying me on his shoulders, I realize that there were people in our midst that were hurting yesterday.  Maybe the hurt was dad has passed away, or dad is deployed, or dad lives out of state.  Maybe the pain was due to spiritual separation from God.  In what some people can celebrate creates pain within others who may be missing something.

God reminded me of a passage of scripture that once again reveals his heart for his children.  “For you did not receive a spirit of that makes you a slave to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship.  And by him we cry, ’Abba, Father’.  The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.”  Romans 8:15-16

“A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling.  God sets the lonely in families.” Psalm 68:5-6

Happy Father’s Day, God!