Father's Day, Expanded

Chris and I have stuck our Father's Day cards in the mail, and I've explored father-to-be options for Chris for this Father's Day, but I wanted to write a few words about how I think we're called to celebrate this day as Christians...and why...

This came to mind this week as I learned that we had only had enough gifts made to hand out this Sunday in church for, well, biological fathers. I hadn't asked before (I hadn't asked for Mother's Day, which is, it turns out, why we'd run out of gifts by the second service) because I had considered it a theological imperative, I guess, to recognize all men on Father's Day. After all, Christianity has long held singleness to be a totally valid path to discipleship, and long gone are the days when (most) Christians would call a childless marriage any less successful than a child-bearing one. After all, a lot of child-bearing marriages end in divorce, so I mean, how would you define "success"?

My own thoughts on this were formed early, and actually due, I think, to my own father's approach to the holiday as I say it played out at the church be served in Baltimore. There was an older could at that church, Chinni and Sununda, who had immigrated to the US from India, having grown up as Christians, and somehow (I cannot remember how) they ended up connected with this church in Baltimore.

Chinni and Sununda were awesome, kind, loving people who loved all the children of the church. They gave generously of their time, love and resources. Chinni has spent much of his life as a teach at a prestigious boys school in the city. But they never had children of their own. They not only care for the children of the church, but in Sununda's later years (she died several years ago) they took care of a niece and her family until that family could get set up here in the US.

It would have seemed radically awkward, really, not to recognize these loving people when we recognized parents. And so it was that we always did. We always recognized all men, or all women, on Mothers and Fathers Day. How else could it be? Certainly Christians value families and family values, but aren't we supposed to reach further, and understand our place in God's family. It just never occurred to me that church would so any less.

I mean, when you think about the important mother or father figures in your life, I bet you'll list people you're not biologically related to, and probably even a few with no kids of their own. All of these people are gifts got has given to use, and all ought to be celebrated!