God is My Father

It was the Sunday before Christmas and Sunday School teachers all over the nation were blissfully teaching the story of the birth of Jesus.  Seems like a picture for a Hallmark card does it not.  Not so this year.  

Child: “Let me get this straight”, quipped a fourth grader with his arms crossed over a not-so clean t-shirt.  “God was Jesus’ baby-daddy and this Joseph was his stepdad, right.”  

Teacher: “Well yes I guess you could put it that way.”

Child:  “Then I just got one question. Did God pay child support?  Cause I ain’t got no respect for no baby-daddy who doesn’t pay child support.”

I recently attended an area wide spiritual function.  When I looked around the room I saw a sea of faces I was surprised to see most were women and what men were there were well over 50. So where is daddy? Spiritual development is a joint effort for parents.  Like the child in my Sunday School class, I ain’t got no respect for a father who doesn’t pay child support.  I am not talking about a monthly financial contribution, though that is important too.  I am referring to a contribution to the child’s spiritual well-being.  Boys and girls are taught how to be men and women more from their father’s than from their mothers.  If this is true, what will the church look like in twenty years if this generation of father’s doesn’t pay the child support?  The church will be weak, fatherless beings floundering for a head. God is our heavenly father, how will we learn to respect him if earthly fathers fail to teach children what fathers should be? That doesn’t mean your earthly father must be perfect, it means the one he serves should be.  Matthew 11:27