Let me start out by saying that football is my favorite sport.  I didn’t grow up watching it though.  My dad was not a football-watching father.  If he had been things might have been different in my life.  For one thing, I probably would have ended up as a Chicago Bears fan instead of a Pittsburgh Steelers fan, so I guess every cloud has a silver lining. (Sorry, Chicago friends!)   I don’t have memories of coming home from church on fall Sundays and plopping on the couch with Dad to watch a game.  No, I have very different Sunday memories.  Many Sundays, we’d return from church, change out of our good clothes, and hear Dad call, “Family Snuggles!” We were little then, so we’d run into the bedroom, and fling our little bodies on the bed with Mom on one side and Dad on the other.  My siblings and I really enjoyed that time and sometimes begged for it.  We felt safe, protected, and loved.

In a completely non-random poll, it was decided that I have the best parents ever.  I know though that many people aren’t blessed with a father or parents like mine.  If that’s you, then my heart aches for you.  Maybe you don’t know your father, or you come from a broken home and Dad was someone you saw on the even-numbered weekends and every other holiday.  Maybe your dad isn’t saved and doesn’t understand a life lived for Christ.  Maybe your father has passed away.

However, every believer has a Heavenly Father.  They don’t have “Happy Father’s Day, God,” cards in Hallmark, but He’s the kind of Father who appreciates a Tele-prayer call anyway.  (Speaking of, have I really talked to Him today?  Yikes!)

God can be like a football Father.  He pulls aside the curtain at times in Scripture and reveals the gridiron of destiny, showing us the spiritual battle between the bad team – Satan and his legions, and the good team – the eternal, holy Godhead and His angels.  (Jude vs. 9, Job 1:6-12, 2:1-7).

God is also a Family Snuggles type of Father.   When I read Psalm 91, I think of the Father that draws us close to him. He desires for us to want that personal relationship with Him because we’re going to need his love, care, and protection.

I won’t spend Father’s Day with my own dad this year, but I have a Father who will never leave me nor forsake me, and that is better than watching football or having family snuggles any day!