Helping Dad

"It was the first time that it had been suggested that I go help my father with anything." 

Did you ever help your dad with things he was doing when you were a child? Did your dad ask for your help?. I believe there's something very endearing and healthy about helping dad. As a dad myself, i learned that its a gesture of love to involve my children with my business on occasion. I understood that feeling and remembered when my own father involved me. There's a sense of feeling needed...that you have a contribution to make...that you you're wanted and it strengthens your bond. Even if dad really was capable of doing the project or task all by himself. That's the beauty of the thing, dad was more interested in your company and in giving you that feeling of loving interaction, than he was in having a helping hand.

Our heavenly Father desires to involve us like that. Its clear that when He came into the world on His mission, it was an honor for us to have 12 of us selected to walk alongside Him, and to take up the torch of His message after He left. His mission was to save the world, but He got the world involved in the process. Unlike a captain who needs a crew, i don't believe the all-sufficient God needs anything, and could have spread His gospel in other ways to the world and to every generation. We're privileged to be asked to take part in His mission, and not only take part in it, but to reap rewards from it. How cool is that! Besides the aspect of giving your kid a sense of being needed, there is the element of "on-the-job training". You're modeling character for them...giving demonstration on how to do things. At first God gave us written record of His word and law...then something new and more powerful happened when He came to demonstrate it. His twelve apprentices were trained to do and say the things He said and did, just as He relayed to them what HE saw HIS Father say and do!

With the responsibility of carrying the gospel message of the world though, we wont be entrusted to effectively relay it by ourselves. God has also provided the very Essence of Himself to continue to walk alongside us as we carry out His commission. We're filled with His very Holy Spirit when we have surrendered our lives to Him, and it is really a joint effort in the mission from then on. Still we feel a concern at times for the weight of what we bear..for the gravity of that calling and how serious a matter it is, and so we don't want to fail.

But we do fail.

We're sinners telling the world they mustn't sin. It sometimes feels sorta hypocritical. But God knowing our wretched state, wanted us to come and help anyways. He was the dad saying "here, carry this or do this...I'll help you"  It's when Jesus really shines through us, that they are drawn to Him. When we've done just enough to convey the invitation, and stepped aside to allow God to take it from there. Even as we stumble and fall, as we fail in our efforts to display the new life of Christ in us and deliver a message of salvation anyone can receive no matter how sinful they are, we're still helping Daddy and He didn't expect us to be perfect just yet, only to "strive" for perfection and aspire to it, knowing the promise that one day we'll be like Him in perfection. I was once an apprentice at my job where i now carry a journeyman's card. The Journeymen that i learned the trade by working with, used to have little sayings like "if you're not making mistakes, you're not doing anything". At the time when i was desperately trying to establish my worth in the job place, that adage was of little comfort, but i got what they meant nonetheless.  Dad will ask for our help, but when we blow it, He will be patient and reassuring . We need that comfort and guidance until we're able to finally stand on our own two feet and carry on the tasks ourselves. Sadly many Earthly fathers have not understood how devastating it can be, when their little helpers make a mistake or something goes wrong, and are scolded too harshly. It can cause life-long traumatic consequences for them.

In the end, all that will remain is faith hope and love, but love is the greatest. Not whether we did the job perfect. It's about love, about family..relationships, caring, and.....helping Dad.