A father's love

There were two fathers who acted on behalf of their sons in the ninth chapter of Mark. One father stood at the bottom of a mountain waiting for Jesus to descend. He'd watched for years as other dads played catch with their sons at the park while he'd spent the last years of his life ever since his boy was born just trying to keep him from falling into the fireplace and burning himself up. While other dads were baiting fishhooks for their kids and teaching them how to fish, he was holding a stick in his son's mouth so the boy wouldn't choke on his tongue. He'd watched other dads having fun wrestling with their kids, but he couldn't do that with his boy.

He'd heard about the Galilean rabbi and his disciples. He'd listened to the disciples and they'd prayed for his boy, but he was no better. So far all he had to show for his long trip was tired legs, a son who was even more agitated than usual, and pointing people who watched to see what the child would do next. He felt like a real fool for waiting on this Jewish wonder-worker to come back to his band of followers who'd boasted of miracles and been unable to produce any for his son. He was tired of gawkers and tired of feeling gullible.

Then Jesus arrived. In desperation the father held his writhing child and begged, "If you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us." I love it that the father asked Jesus to help "us." He didn't say, "Would you help my son." He pleaded, "Help US." He connected so closely to his son's pain and affliction, that he took his son's burden. He shared the suffering.

I heard the "IF" in his prayer, though. Jesus heard it, too. He also heard the two doubts: "If you have power to do anything" and "if you have the compassion (the will) to help us." Things haven't changed much in the last 2,000 years. They're the same two doubts that people express today: Can God help and does he want to?

Jesus handed the "IF" and the doubts back to the father. "If you can believe, all things are possible to him that believes."

That's when the father pleaded in tearful desperation, "I do believe! Help me to believe more!" I think he actually did what we do when we come to the end of our own ability; he admits, "My faith is lacking so will you please help me to believe more. I can't fix my problems, and I'm just depending on you, God."

He didn't pray any "thee" and "thou" prayers. No long, drawn-out rhetoric. No impressive language. No gushing. No buttering up. Just honesty. Humility. Desperation. Just a daddy's love.

So Jesus responded to the man's love and healed his son. After all, Jesus had just spent some time with his own father while up on the mountain.

That's right. The other father in the first part of Mark 9 had spoken up when Jesus was on the mountaintop with three of his disciples. After a glorious, transfigured Jesus carried on a discussion with Moses and Elijah, both dead for hundreds of years, the Father dropped what he was doing up in heaven and assured and declared in an audible voice, "This is my son, whom I love. Listen to him!"

It's Father's Day weekend. We need more fathers who take the time to assure and declare, "I love you." We need more dads who will stay with their kids whether they're on the mountaintops or falling into the fires of life. And we need daddies who hurt when their kids hurt and pray, "Help us!"

Lord, give us godly fathers who will love like you with an unconditional, never-ending love.

June Seabaugh is a member of Christ Church of the Heartland in Cape Girardeau.