I’m a couple of weeks late passing this along, but I was blessed to share a post on enCourage for Father’s Day (read it here). As I sat at my laptop attempting to write about earthly fathers and our Heavenly Father there were so many stories, thoughts, and feelings in my head and heart I had trouble narrowing them down for a single, legible post. There’s a particular memory (with a heavenly association) which I had in mind as I began writing which, as often happens, I needed to edit out after the post took a different turn.
I have a memory of my own father, after I had wounded myself in some fashion—a stubbed toe or scraped knee, trying to convince me to allow him to apply the wickedly painful merthiolate antiseptic solution to my wound, and, hoping to avoid the temporary but fierce pain of this remedy, I was stubbornly arguing with him. He calmly and logically explained the consequences of my refusal to accept this terrible cure, beginning with infection and ending in lockjaw and death. Considering those consequences, I tearfully accepted the temporary sting of that awful red antiseptic, to avoid the (surely exaggerated) outcomes my Daddy described.
Our heavenly Father knows that our deepest and most desperate need is for everlasting life and holiness (which is no exaggeration), and to meet these needs he applies the healing balm of the blood of the Lamb to our fatal wound, thus giving us life in his Son, Jesus Christ. Furthermore, our heavenly Father knows that as long as we are amused by the trivialities of the world and captivated by our old sinful habits we won’t be completely satisfied in him, so he gives us the Holy Spirit to sanctify, discipline, and teach us, wisely prescribing the perfect remedies to each of us, as needed (Heb. 12:6-10).
I am grateful that my Heavenly Father gave me such a logical, reasonable, and loving earthly father, who would proceed with what he knew to be right even over my fearful and childish protests.
I’m also grateful that modern medicine has progressed beyond merthiolate ointment and we have less-painful solutions for childhood’s scuffs and scrapes!
Grateful 