Daddy…! Daddy…! Daddy…!

Daddy…! Daddy…! Daddy…!

I heard the cry coming from the street…

Searching in the dusky evening light for the source… I saw him… across our back lot… running down the street…

Daddy…! Daddy…! Daddy…!

A fret-full cry from a small frame…

It took a fraction of a second to see there was no adult nearby… I ran…!

down the porch steps…

across the patio…

through the backyard…

cutting across the lot… seventy yards or so… to the street…

Daddy…! Daddy…! Daddy…!

Getting close enough for him to hear me… I yelled… Hey…! Hey…!

He turned… saw me… and changed direction… running toward me…

I scooped him up a few yards from the street…

Daddy…! Daddy…! Daddy…! he continued… between sobs… pointing down the street in the direction he’d been running…

He let me hold him… but continued to make his need known… Daddy…!

This little one… probably not yet two years old… limited vocabulary… Superman pajamas… and a deep desire for his daddy… began to catch his breath in my arms…

My husband… close behind… called 911…

A few minutes later… before we could make a full report… and walking back up the street where he had come from… a frantic grandma could be heard calling his name…

We walked toward her… relief at finding him… horror at losing him… etched her face…

Readily… he went into her arms…

We talked briefly… heard the story of his escape… and parted ways…

From his grandmother’s arms… tears still glistening on his cheeks… he smiled… waved… and said… Bye-bye… oblivious to the potential danger he just recently avoided…

And I wonder this morning… at our powerful need for our Daddy…

Biologically we all had… have one… whether good or bad… absent or present… we have this deep need for a Daddy…

The reality is… spiritually…  we all have access to our heavenly Daddy… Abba Father… the One we desperately need…

The One we run after… not even knowing it’s the One we need… not recognizing the dangers… as we search frantically through this broken world for something to fill the aching hole in our hearts…

His Son… Jesus… came and made the Way for us to be reunited to our Father in heaven… the One we were created to relate to… to glorify… and serve with our lives… the One who satisfies wholly with His love…

If you’re still seeking on this Father’s Day… for the one thing to fill your soul… I pray you find Him today…

Run to Him… call for Him… He will hear…

He will respond for He is our Father… our Daddy in heaven… and He’s waiting for you… to return to Him… by way of His Son… via His Holy Spirit…

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”

Galatians 4:4-6 ESV