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The whole world in a Father’s hands
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“Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.” —Colossians 3:23–24
This Sunday is Father’s Day, a day to celebrate what it means to be a great father and know we have a perfect Father in heaven. As children we sang, He’s Got the Whole World in his Hands and learned to trust that God is in control of this world. As we grew older, we came to realize and accept that our perfect Father also honors the free will of mankind. God will always work to redeem the wrong choices of mankind, but the consequences of those earthly choices usually remain.
I’ve thought a lot about this subject this past week. As I write these words, I am thinking about a family whose son will spend most of his remaining life in jail. I’m also thinking about the family whose son will never come home again. Both boys were barely old enough to qualify as “adults” when they made choices they cannot take back. Justice was done, but the justice still feels like a tragedy. Many lives were damaged by a few moments of uncontrolled rage.
How does an innocent baby grow up to become a young man who is labeled guilty for the rest of his life? As I watched the news unfold, I thought, “Did this young man have a father in his life?” “Will this young man ever have the chance to know he has a Father in heaven?”
This article goes to thousands of people each week. I know that some are incredibly grateful for their earthly fathers, while others are not. Most of you are Christians and have the hope and joy of knowing your Holy Father in heaven. As I think about the song I sang as a child, I think about our country’s great need to honor God and place the whole world in his hands.
Only God is a perfect Father. Only God can perfectly guide the earthly fathers in the world right now, and he wants to do that. Which father comes to your mind as someone you need to stop and pray for right now?
Thank God for those who are working hard to parent well
Cooper Alan has a song that will make you smile. He wrote Whole World in his Hands
after the birth of his daughter. The video is a peek into the love he feels for his baby girl. His lyrics are a reminder of what it truly means to be a father in this world of confused priorities. No man will ever get it exactly right, but the best dads are those who choose to work hard at the role of “dad.”There is a life lesson from Colossians for every person and every parent. Paul wrote, “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ” (Colossians 3:23–24). The apostle Paul would tell every dad today to work hard to parent their children, as if they were serving the Lord’s purpose for their lives. He would also tell them that teaching their children to know the Lord as their Father will be the greatest accomplishment in their role as a dad.
Whenever I speak to groups of parents, I remind them that they can do their very best, but their children were created with a will of their own. No amount of parenting can remove a child’s God-given free will. That fact doesn’t change their role as parents. We don’t ever stop praying, and we don’t ever stop parenting. We continue to parent in different ways, once our children are no longer kids.
I loved the Cooper Alan video because of the joy and love his face revealed as he looked at his baby girl. On this Father’s Day, every parent can take a moment to remember the awe we felt when the doctor or nurse handed our child to us and said, “Here you go, Dad or Mom.”
We also need to remember that parenting is something we work at with all of our hearts, as our service to the Lord. We are called to serve our families as if we are serving the Lord, because we are serving Jesus.
Pray and serve those who don’t have a dad
According to AI, “25 percent (about 1 in 4) of U.S. children under the age of 18 live without a biological, step, or adoptive father in the home. This rate has roughly tripled since 1960, giving the United States one of the highest rates of father-absent households globally.”
Every Christian in America needs to let that number sink in. My readers were probably kids in the 1960’s. The vast majority of us had a dad in our home. I’m grateful every day that I had a dad who loved me, disciplined me, and taught me to be a hard-working parent. But the number of kids who don’t have a dad like that has tripled since I was in elementary school.
As Christians, we can’t ignore the facts, and we shouldn’t ignore the need. Children need parents who will invest in their character, their futures, and their faith. Children today need that more than ever. AI also says, “While exact numbers fluctuate, various advocacy groups and studies estimate that between 70 to 85 percent of incarcerated youths and adults grew up in father-absent homes.” The stats say it all.
The good news of the gospel message
Jesus told Nicodemus that he needed to be born again. We are used to that phrase and often substitute “saved” for the words “born again.” Saved isn’t a wrong definition, but it might be an incomplete definition.
If you grew up in church and naturally came to a salvation experience, then you probably remember a day when you chose Jesus as your Lord. Later, you were baptized to affirm and witness to that choice. But when you woke up the next morning, your life probably didn’t seem much different than the day before. That wasn’t true for those early Christians in the first century. Their faith in Christ changed almost everything. It was a new beginning to their lives, their families, and their faith.
Our lives were dramatically changed by our salvation experience, whether we were aware of it or not. That is the power of the Holy Spirit that Jesus spoke of in Acts 1:8.
Who do you know that needs to become a member of our eternal, heavenly family? Some are sitting in prison. Many are sitting in our schools. Many go to work every day, wondering whether work will really make them happy.
There are a lot of people who need a family, a complete family to embrace them. The good news of the gospel message is that through Christ, everyone can be “born again.” Who will you share that good news with for Father’s Day? Everyone can have a perfect Father if God’s children make the introductions. I pray that the young man who is spending his first Father’s Day in prison will be given that opportunity.
God’s “got the whole world in his hands,” but he will also honor our free wills. We need to place our lives in his hands and submit to him as our Lord today. Imagine what would happen if we made that important choice each day! The world can be a better place if God’s children will work at it, with all of our hearts, knowing it truly is the Lord Jesus we are serving.
