Bobservations Column
by Pastor Bob Lawrenz
Happy Father’s Day,
to all the Dads here today. We all may smile a bit about what many think is
just another Hallmark Holiday. But folks have been celebrating Father’s Day for
many years, and it’s not just here in the west.
The Monongah Mining Disaster of 1907 took
the lives of 361 young men, and more than 260 of them were fathers. The region
around Monangah, WV was left with more than a thousand fatherless children. Grace
Golden Clayton
was grieving for
her own father who had passed away in West Virginia at the time, but with the mining tragedy,
she encouraged a local pastor to preach on the honor of fathers within the
family. She may have been inspired by another nearby woman who had pushed for
Mothers’ Day a couple of years prior.
In the northwest, locals were trying to do
something similar in the State of Washington in 1910. Wider support was sought for the
holiday then, and again in 1912. But it wasn’t until 1915 that a Bill was
introduced in the U.S. Congress to officially recognize Father’s Day as a
holiday. Even then, the celebration only gained momentum slowly.
Other nations also had holidays to
recognize the role of fathers; all were generally celebrated in late spring to
early summer. Today, more than 59 countries around the world recognize Father’s
Day as a day to celebrate Dads everywhere.
Today as we finish Psalm 119, we see the
role that The Father plays in all our lives. Its importance precedes anything
that Grace Golden Clayton sought recognition for by about 5900 years, or
anything anyone else had done, including Congress. Jehovah’s Ten Commandments
are His “House Rules,” if you will. And it is through the keeping of them that
we find ourselves in a good and healthy relationship between our heavenly
Father and His children. The Father’s love for us shows through His
Commandments, His judgments, His testimonies, precepts, and His Word, Jesus
Christ.
In whatever way your family may celebrate
Father’s Day today, make it a day to celebrate and glorify The Father of us
all.
“We love him,
because he first loved us.” ~ 1 John 4:19
