23 November, 2003 9:48 PM
Michelle wrote a post a day back that has had me thinking all day. She writes:
'My son has never met his dad - I last saw the guy when I was 3 months pregnant. It's unlikely he ever will.
I've been struggling with thoughts of how my son will see God as a Father, when he has no earthly father to relate to. How can I show him what a father is really meant to be, when he hasn't experienced it for himself?'
She talks about her desire for her son to have a Dad and finishes by saying:
'I think perhaps only God will be able to answer this one, in a way He has planned and that I have yet to see.'
Like Michelle I don't have any answers on this one. Its something that has been close to my heart for a number of years.
When I was in my late teens I went out with a girl whose sister was killed in a car crash. Her sister was a single mum of a baby girl and my girlfriend instantly became a mum. For the next three and a half years I became the closest thing that little girl had to a father. I was only 18 and I had no idea what I was doing.
I asked many questions of God in that period of my life, I still ask some of them. It was a very confusing period of life. Yet in the midst of the grief and pain I always had a sense that God had control of things and that I was in that place for that time for a reason.
Comments
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I'm sure that time meant a whole world to that little girl.
Susan » 25 November, 2003 10:25 AM
That's a touching story, Darren.
Re Michelle's dilemma, she writes:
I've been struggling with thoughts of how my son will see God as a Father, when he has no earthly father to relate to.
- could I suggest that perhaps the problem here is seeing God as a gendered thing. Perhaps Michelle just needs to broaden her concept of 'God' so that it is not a 'He' or 'Him' or 'Father' figure, but exists outside of human notions of gender?
(I should point out that I'm an atheist but I am probably quite aligned with Zen, in that I feel that every single thing, good and bad, is divine, rather than there being some kind of separate conscious entity.)
Gianna » 25 November, 2003 1:38 PM
I'm pretty sure you were great at it. It's a spin out to realise exactly how fast time flies - and the distance we've travelled.
Luke » 24 November, 2003 11:45 PM