Scribbles

By John fischer

Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. (Matthew 6:9)

With Father’s Day coming, what do you give the Father who has everything?

Short of reducing God to Hallmark sentiment, there is a way to think about our Father in heaven that would be appropriate on any day, but especially this weekend since this is when we focus on fathers.

Earlier this week I received a book from my daughter. It’s a gift book with pictures of and brief thoughts about fathers and daughters. But what really makes it special are the notes she wrote in it, for as you work through the small book, you find a comment or embellishment by my daughter scribbled on almost every page. So far I have yet to read the book, but you can be sure I’ve taken in all her comments. That was the first thing I did.

Why are her words so much more valuable to me than the printed page? Because they are hers. They express things in her own inimitable way and they recall special moments we have shared together.

In the same way, I believe our worship is something we can give to our Father in heaven who has everything. And most importantly, not just the words of liturgy printed on the pages of our scripted worship, but our handwritten scribbles between the lines. Is this not one of the reasons He created us — to reflect our love for Him in ways that are unique to us? If He doesn’t have this from you or me, He doesn’t have it. I suppose you could even say He is lacking something we could give Him. We were made to glorify God and we each do it differently.

There is yet another gift we can give our Father. He would love to have whatever it is we are holding on to — what we think we are keeping to ourselves. These are things like dependencies that keep us from depending on Him, self-indulgence that could be turned into worship, sin that cheapens the deeper gifts He has for us — all these things become shortcuts to satisfaction that never satisfy. These are the idols in our lives that draw our attention away from God, which is the one thing He really wants that we are in control of — our attention.

This Father’s Day, let’s think about our Father in heaven and how we might scribble a note to Him over the liturgy of worship — some personal _expression that captures our love for Him and gratitude for the life He gives. Back in the ‘60s, Noel Stookey recorded a song about writing God a note on the back of an envelope in church. Hmmmm….