I'm "Dad" now!

So I've been spending each day trying to roll up my sleeves and get to work on this whole "dad" thing! We've had the standard experiences all along the way: diapers, crying, diapers, feeding issues, diapers, consulting the 21st Century's Delphi oracle (i.e. Google) regarding our increasing list of baby questions, diapers...

It's easy enough to go about this whole new reality as though it were a job, a task to be achieved to some degree. But if there's one thing I'm learning by heart each day, it's that "Dad" is not a job title. I am "Dad" now. There now exists a tiny little human on this earth for whom "Dad" means just one thing - me. If that's not enough to blow your mind, I don't know what is!

Scripture is filled to the brim with fathers. Good ones, OK ones, mediocre ones, and even dreadfully evil ones. Look at some examples. First we might take a peek at the fatherhood of Jacob. Jacob loves his children dearly, but he plays favorites. God is up to the challenge, though, for He utilizes the situation of Joseph's maltreatment and abuse at the hands of his jealous brothers and his subsequent sojourn in Egypt to ultimately bring about the expansion of the Hebrew people. The old saying is quite true: "God writes straight with crooked lines."


Then we might look into a darker chapter, namely the fatherly relationship of King Saul to David. Saul starts off well enough, but in his prime he becomes a deeply vengeful, self-centered, wicked king whose heart is far from God. His bloodthirsty pursuit of David in order to eliminate any competition for his throne is nothing short of paranoid. And yet, God uses this deeply painful and tormenting experience to raise up David as the Great King of Israel.

Lastly, we look away from kings and great patriarchs to a simple and altogether unexpected place - a small, humble carpenter's shop in Nazareth and the quietest, meekest man in the history of the world (next to Jesus!) Saint Joseph is the penultimate father in the Bible. He never utters a single word on the pages of Sacred Scripture, and yet, he is the one whom the child Jesus called "Papa" each day. Joseph, though not biologically the father of Christ, was every bit the face of the Father in Heaven to the growing Messiah, the Son of God. If another child asked Jesus, "where is your dad?", it was to Saint Joseph that Jesus pointed. What an incredible responsibility! Joseph's fatherhood of Jesus is not a job, a task to be achieved. Joseph was "Dad" to the Son of God.

That's why I'm leaning on him so much these days. I look to Saint Joseph for my inspiration, for he's the greatest model of what it means to be "Dad." Saint Joseph, pray for us!