Happy Father’s Day! A pastor asked a young boy if he could explain what Father’s Day is, what it meant to him. He answered, “Well, it’s just like Mother’s Day, only you don’t spend as much for the present!” It is good to have a day set aside to remember dads for all that they do. Many of us cannot say “Happy Father’s Day” to our dads because they have died. We’d love to be able to give him a hug or a gift or speak with him one more time, but he isn’t here. So if your dad is still living, take advantage of the chance to make this a special day for him.

Most of us resemble our parents, if not in physical and emotional traits, then maybe in abilities, attitudes and actions. Many times my mother commented about something I have said: “That’s something your father would say!” My wife will chime in with an occasional comment to my mom: “Who does that sound like?” And over the years, when one of our children imitated one of my less than sterling qualities, my wife would say to them in an exasperated tone, “You’re just like your father!” Being like your father or mother does not have to be all bad. The character of a child’s life reveals whose child he or she is. While this is typically true in terms of our earthly parents, it is even more accurate in terms of our spiritual Father.

1 John 3:1-2  How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

You and I are the children of God. Not by natural birth, though. By nature, we are children of wrath, enemies of God, orphaned and estranged from Him. We show this by the behavior that we so often lapse into, like those things I wish my kids hadn’t seen and imitated.

Have you noticed that no one wants to be held accountable for his or her actions? So many have the attitude, “Yes, I did it, but it is not my fault.” That excuse just doesn’t wash. Before God, you are accountable for all you have done and what you have not done. But you and I have something that will wash. We admit our sins, without making excuses for them, because we remember that we became God’s children through a washing that He provides. We have received the washing we need in the rebirth that comes through water and the Word, the rebirth of Baptism. Jesus stepped in, took our place, and paid the price for our sins. He did that through a perfect life, a cross, and a resurrection. He offers the benefit of all He did – forgiveness, life and salvation – in Baptism, which makes you clean in His sight and marks you as His children. By His grace, you and I have become His children through this REBIRTH, a spiritual adoption as it were, which God initiated and completed. We are His children!

More on this tomorrow.