Historically speaking, the nation’s first Father’s Day was celebrated on June 19, 1910 but not until 1972, when Richard Nixon signed a proclamation, did Father’s Day become a nationwide federal holiday. Today there are more than 70 million fathers in the United States and economists estimate that Americans spend more than $1 billion each year on Father’s Day gifts!
I hope you are able to honor and cherish the fathers in your life. They might be biological fathers or adoptive fathers, grandfathers, sons, brothers, uncles, cousins or friends. Today, I’m especially remembering my biological father, William B. Walker, now residing in Heaven.
My dad, Bill Walker, holds a special place in my heart. I know that I am truly blessed to have been raised by this godly man. He was only 19 when I was born, himself a student at the former Cincinnati Bible Seminary, studying for the ministry. He came from a family of ministers – a great-grandfather, a grandfather, two uncles, and a brother. He was a man, gifted with words and a charismatic preaching style. At the age of 30, my dad took his wife and family of four children to Japan to serve as missionaries. My mother’s brother, Claude Likins, took his family to serve in Japan at the same time, as well. The four adults soon enrolled in language school in Tokyo and it wasn’t long before my dad was able to stop using an interpreter and begin to preach in Japanese by himself. I thought it was amazing that he became fluent enough to preach the Gospel in Japanese, though he joked that the “first 20 years of language study were the hardest”!
I can remember that the first little Japanese church where my Dad preached was within walking distance from our house. We asked our supporting churches in the states to save and send outdated Sunday school papers to us, so that we could use them as teaching aids. I was excited to have an English-speaking Bible class myself, at age 12. My Dad did have a preaching interpreter at this church and one of the first things I learned was to take notes on my Dad’s sermons. He taught me to listen for the main points of his sermon and write them in a little notepad that I had with my Bible. I still take notes now when I listen to class material and sermons.
Interestingly, I remember that my Dad taught some important life-lessons. For example, I learned proper habits of etiquette like “elbows off the table”, “chew with your mouth closed”, “don’t scrape your teeth on the fork”, “wait until everyone is finished before asking to leave the table”. But most of all, my Dad taught by example how to love and care for others. I learned about God’s love for me and to have the assurance of salvation. He taught the meaning of difficult passages of Scripture. I learned the importance of daily devotional time with the Lord. My Dad willingly helped with homework and was involved with my school activities, participating in school events where he could chaperon and meet my friends. When I attended night school at Sophia University years later, my dad would always meet me at the bus stop and walk me back home. My parents felt that we were personally safe in Tokyo, but it was reassuring to have his company on those late nights in poorly lighted areas.
Back in the states, after my Mother had died of cancer, I became engaged. My Dad got a laugh from people’s response when he told them that “a young, blonde woman had asked him to marry her”! It was a thrill to have my Dad, as an ordained minister in the state of Ohio, conduct the ceremony and marry us! My Dad always supported and encouraged me in the areas of marriage, motherhood, as a teacher and into retirement. He preached and witnessed to others through the years of his walk with the Lord and until his death, which I was privileged to witness. I am so thankful for my Dad and the life he lived. I look forward to the day I’ll see him again!
The lyrics of “Forever Home” say it perfectly:
He always spoke of Heaven like he’d been there before.
He said it was the one thing that he was living for.
How bittersweet the moment, the sunset of a life.
As we all cried and said our last goodbyes, and watched him take his flight.
Forever home. Living in the arms of Jesus now.
Standing in the shadow of the throne he bows. I can almost see him there.
No more tears, pain has lost its hold on him. He’s more alive than he’s ever been.
He’s arrived, oh, I know. He’s forever home!
I know that I am wonderfully blessed to have had the father I had. But the wonderful thing about being God’s child, is that God found a way to make us His own. Romans 8:15 says, You did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear. Instead, you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, ‘Abba Father!’” We have been given the right through this adoption to call God our Daddy. We can go to God in the personal relationship of child-to-Daddy. Thank you, Father, for the privilege to call you Daddy!