Continuing my thoughts about Our Heavenly Father and earthly fathers, I am looking at a friend Michael’s experiences of his father. Born in Australia, Michael lived for his first 7 years happily with his mother and father, mainly in New Guinea where his father, an ordained Methodist minister, was serving as a missionary with the Methodist missionary society. He can remember experiencing warmth and love in his family, and treasures a photo of his dad standing beside a car with him, about to take him to school.
Concerns about the progress of World War 2 were increasing and, after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbour in December 1941, Michael, his mother and brother had to leave New Guinea hastily and return to Australia, living with various relatives. His father remained in New Guinea, to continue his work, but was taken prisoner by the invading Japanese and forced to board an overcrowded boat of over 1,000 prisoners of war, destined for a Japanese prisoner of war camp. The boat never reached Japan, as it was sunk by an American submarine. No prisoners survived.
The news was not reported in Australia’s newspapers till the end of the war and Michael’s family lived with uncertainty for nearly 4 years. In October 1945 Michael was called to his headmaster’s study and told that his father had died on this ship over 3 years ago. His mother struggled to cope throughout this period so they moved between various relatives, and when he wanted to find out more about the father he only vaguely remembered, he was helped by his father’s best friend who told him just what a special and admired figure his father had been.
Many years later, after his ordination to the ministry, marriage and becoming a father himself, serving the church in different locations, Michael returned to the same place in New Guinea where he had lived in his early years with his father. Of this move he writes, “Was this a chance to deal with unfinished business, —- Maybe I could pick up the torch my father had had torn from him thirty years earlier?”
He spent 2 years there with his family. In later life he continues to make it a priority to attend the annual Anzac remembrance service on April 25th.
For Michael there was a period of “not knowing” in terms of whether his father was alive and whether he would ever return to be with the family. Relating this to our relationship to our Father God, many of us will have been through times of “not knowing”. We may have been brought up in a Christian home, taken to church, but as life has taken us in new directions it may all have felt rather distant. Is there a God, and if there is, is he really interested in me and wanting a relationship with me? Perhaps we felt able to share these feelings with someone, perhaps not. As Michael learned more about his father through his father’s good friend, perhaps we found a Christian who helped us along the way, telling us about their relationship with Father God?
After Michael was told of his father’s death in a sudden and rather brutal way, he had to come to terms with the fact that his relationship with his father would be through reaching out to learn more about him and, as the knowledge of the wonderful work his father had done grew, he sought to walk where his father had walked, and to continue the work his father had done. For those of us who seek to live the life of faith, there is often that desire to explore more about God our Father, perhaps to visit the Holy Land, or to know him better through going on a retreat or pilgrimage, studying the Bible more deeply, or walking in beautiful parts of the world he has created. Alongside this quest to get to know our Father better there may come a desire to commit more deeply to doing his work, by serving our fellow men and women in some way, or telling others about his love through preaching, teaching or personal evangelism. In so doing we may draw closer to our Heavenly Father, whose existence may have felt somewhat remote in the past.
St Paul longed for members of the churches he planted to know the love of their Heavenly Father, and he writes to the Ephesians, “I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God”. Ephesians 3 verses 18- 19.
Dear Lord, please help us to seek to know you more deeply and to comprehend the love of Christ, which surpasses knowledge. Amen