busy fathers

My dad was a busy man. I grew up understanding this fact, not because he announced it or complained about it, but because that was his life. 

When I was five years old, I remember going to him in his tiny office that was also used as laundry room in our apartment and asking him a question. This act of going to converse with my dad is my first and earliest one-on-one memory with him. I have no idea what he may have been working on (most likely something to do with learning Cantonese as he was a language student at the time) or how he felt having been interrupted by one of his four young children. All I know and remember is that he stopped what he was doing to both listen and respond. 

That moment was key in my life. 

My busy dad pressed pause on his day to nurture and care for the question on my heart and mind. 

Not all memories thereafter have matched this one, but I'm grateful for a father who I felt I could go to and ask my pressing question as a little girl. I'm grateful he directed me wisely and humbly, setting aside his many cares, burdens, deadlines, or perhaps even a sliver of leisure time on that particular day. 

Many fathers start out great, then they change and damage is done in the lives of their children. My dad and my mom were both brought up under such circumstances. I seriously worried about this change for the worse just before I married my husband. But do you know that the grace of God can outlast human faults and failures; that it can restore and replenish where needed in the lives of those who pursue it? 

Happy Father's Day to my dad, my husband, to all my brothers including in laws, and so many others I know who are daily fathering well by the grace and goodness of God.