Forgotten Father

Over the past year, I have started to lunch on a monthly basis with Kylie, my 13 yr old daughter.  It’s just one of the father/daughter things we both seem to enjoy doing together and it has helped us in growing in our relationship.  I could spend hours bragging on my beautiful girl, however, we’ll save that for another time.
This school year, we’ve kinda gotten out of our routine.  As a result, that past couple months when I come to pick up Kylie from school for lunch, she hasn’t been there waiting.  Last month, I ended up walking to the school cafeteria where she saw my smiling face and came running.  We enjoyed another wonderful lunch at China’s Best, one of our favorites.

Today, as I showed up at the school office, I once again found Kylie wasn’t waiting.  So, I walked to the cafeteria to get her; only, this time, she wasn’t there.  As I met her friends, they indicated they didn’t know where Kylie was and said “didn’t she forget you last time”.  Returning to the office, I sat and waited a bit to see if she would come to find me.  Finally, I decided to go ahead and leave.  Initially, it wasn’t a real big deal; however, as I was walking out the door, I began to become a bit sad.  I have really come to enjoy this time together in our relationship, and I recognized that since she forgot me, the time potentially wasn’t as important to her as it is to me.

Later in the afternoon, I was reflecting on my relationship with our Heavenly Father.  It just so happens that we are leading a High School ministry and going through Francis Chan’s Forgotten God series.  As I was reflecting, something hit me with relation to today’s events with Kylie.

Often we relate our relationship with God to that of an earthly father and child.   As I reflected, I thought to myself, “The sadness I experienced today gave me a glimpse of what it’s like for our Heavenly Father when we forget him at times.”  Taking a step further, how often to we forget about our Heavenly Father on a daily basis.

After school, I picked up Kylie and she was very apologetic.  It turns out that she had a special class project that she worked through lunch and just totally forgot me.  While I forgave my daughter and understood, I couldn’t help but still think of how many times we have a “special project” that is totally distracting us from the most important relationship we have in our Father.  Thankfully, we serve a God of grace and forgiveness for which I appreciate his example.

So, Kylie, I love you very much and I look forward to our next lunch together.  In the end, today’s missed opportunity may have been more beneficial to both of us in the long run as we grow in our relationship with our Heavenly Father.

God Bless,

Chris