I Brought You To Myself

I was driving home this morning and I saw a young man carrying his small daughter on his shoulders. He was walking confidently seemingly unburdened. She was playing paddy-cake on his head. I saw God.

Fathers carry their children aloft because little legs are short and I think (secretly) because it makes men look taller. I considered the different ways my own husband carried our son as being godlike.

A father carries his children in his hands, looks into their eyes and says, "Hello, I am your Daddy."

(My sheep hear my voice...I have given them eternal life...no one will snatch them out of my hand ...or my Father's hand...John 10:27-28. Some translations say no one will tear them away from me.)

The day before my own 24th birthday the nurse wheeled a bassinet into my hospital room. John who had attended the delivery was about to hold his son for the first time. Etched into my memory is a young musician with unruly hair, plaid shirt and platform shoes lifting his golden son to himself with gentle hands, placing him snugly under his chin and over his heart. John's first words held all the feeling of immigrants arriving on bright new shores. "Oh, my little buddy! My little buddy!" The pact was sealed. To this day they are Father-Son best friends.

A father carries his children on his shoulders and says,"This is the world I am giving you. You are safe. I'm here. Go get it!" (Even to your old age, I am He, and even to gray hairs I will carry you! I have made, and I will bear; Even I will carry, and will deliver you. Isaiah 46:4).

John would put John David on his shoulders so he could reach the things I had put up high (I thought safely) because they were "exploring." He would carry him aloft so he had a better view of the world and so he could travel faster, safer. There were no muddy feet or bee stings high up on Da's shoulders but there was man style wisdom and a confident world view. Strong hands holding on. No fear of falling. John David, though small, had a foundation that raised him up to considerable height.

A father carries his children in his heart and his soul says," You will always be mine and you will always live loved. (I carried you on eagles’ wings, and brought you to myself. Exodus 19:4)


Standing in the airport John wrapped his arms around our now larger soldier-son. A son whose physical strength surpassed his father's. There were heart rending good-byes but when John David walked away to war there was his father still holding him tightly in his heart. His own Father-God, Abba-Daddy, I-will-love-you-forever-and-a-mile-beyond heart, holding our son in a sure, safe grip. His heart had woven his love for his son and his love for God and God's love for all into that unbreakable three-strand-cord. A cord that would hold no matter how far it was stretched. (Even if it had to stretch from this life to the next.)

Many years ago I sat upon my own father's broad shoulders and saw the Lord coming from afar off. I beheld Eternity from that perch and it was one of his greatest gifts to me. I have no lost saints and I honor him for that on this Father's Day.

To my husband, John, and my son, John David, now himself that father with a happy burden (pictures are of JD and family), to my brothers-in-law Jake, Rick and Mark, to all my father-friends, to our fathers here and to those now in Heaven, and especially to our all-loving, ever-present Father God, I say blessings and honor on this day and all the days to come.

You have held us long-loved.

Feel free to leave a comment here if you would like to honor your father as a Father's Day Blessing or In Memoriam. Comments honoring Our Father are welcome as well.