Thank you Daddy

Photo credit: www.bostonglobe.com

One day my father, he told me,

“Son, don’t let it slip away”

He took me in his arms, I heard him say,

“When you get older,

Your wild heart will live for younger days

Think of me if ever you’re afraid”

He said, “One day you’ll leave this world behind

So live a life you will remember

My father told me when I was just a child

These are the nights that never die

My father told me.

Avicii struck a cord with many when he penned those lines and belted them out in his hit, ‘the nights'. Many can relate with the EDM's star, given how our fathers have offered us sound pieces of advice from time to time.

Fatherhood is the true litmus test for manhood if you ask me. A responsibility, a privilege, all  rolled up in one, that goes beyond spawning a child but nurturing one.

Tomorrow people will wax lyrical about their fathers, and why shouldn’t they? Those dads have earned it. From that poignant moment when they first held us in their arms, as we cried a river as any normal baby would do, they had our back.

They have had to sacrifice sleep in a bid to make us catch ours. They have had to put in the extra shift at work to put the food on the table, clothes on our bodies and a roof over our heads. He went the exta mile to ensure we had a good education and that we were able to visit the doctor when we felt unwell.

Fathers have had to cut out on time with the boys, or miss out on the top-of-the table EPl game just to be at their son’s game or daughter’s concert. Sacrifice is in their blood, ‘them above me, my desires’  is the mantra.

These men have had to know how life works more than Google and Wikipedia. The phrase, “I don’t know” is akin to hurling expletives, they just have to know.

You can count on dad to protect you from a broad array of villains, name them, the boogeyman, the neighbourhood bully, the mbwa kali, the teenage boy wanting to make out with his daughter et al. Dad just had this presence about him that gave us peace and comfort even when danger lurked nearby.

For some of you though, Avicii’s lyrics and my words are hollow. Perhaps death snatched your father away from you before he could leave his mark on your life. Perhaps you have a father who doesn’t tick the above boxes. Maybe it was a dad who turned physical and beat you and mum silly with his fists of rage as a result of his close relationship with the beer bottle. Maybe he jumped ship and left you and mum to fend for yourselves. Maybe be violated you as his daughter and raped you.

I won’t lie and say, I feel your pain. Neither will I pretend to know what you’re going through. What I will say is that all is not lost. Your need to be identified as a child, to be affirmed and to be loved will not go unfulfilled with the father I have come to know largely by reading what is said of him in the bible.

He is a father who heals the brokenhearted and binds their wounds(Psalms 147:3). He is a father who gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak(Isaiah 40:29). He is a father who does not revel in singing, “fimbo, chapa!” He does not take pleasure in the death of the wicked but is pleased when they turn from their ways and live (Ezekiel 18:23)

He lives in a high and holy place but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.(Isaiah 57:15)

Like most of our dads, he gives good gifts to those who ask him (Matthew 7:11) and knowing how we are comforted and find peace in his presence, he promises never to leave us or forsake us(Hebrews 13:5)

Despite all this, you and me decided to run away from him. We thought to ourselves, “We got this”. We thought that we knew what was best for us. We thought that he was too old school but we were wrong. 

Only that we didn’t got this, we knew nothing and we ended up making mistakes, plenty of them, our desire for independence only made us realize of a gnawing need to be dependent on him.

In our stubbornness, we ended up sinning, going against what he said in his word, being involved in drunkenness, being sexually impure, deceiving others and we paid a heavy price for it. Fortunately, of all the qualities God has as a father, the one that stands out is that he is love(1 John 4:8).

God loved the world too much to leave as we are so he sent his son Jesus, to be a ransom for all men(1 Timothy 2:6) to buy us back from the slavery that our sins had plunged us into. He saved us when we could not save ourselves, and it cost him more than an arm and leg, it cost him his son who had to die for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous to bring us close to God.(1 Peter 3:18)

What a loving father he is, words fail me to describe his everlasting goodness, mercy, grace and love to me. That’s my father. That’s our father. One day a year to recognize fathers is good, thus I will say happy father's day to the many dads out there. They deserve it. To God, my father, one day just doesn’t cut it, quite frankly I don’t know what can, in thankfulness I just give him my life and say thank you daddy.