“He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers.” Malachi 4:6
Until Drew Lock appeared in the starting roster late this season, Denver Broncos fans didn’t have much to cheer about. The team was a dismal 3-8 when the baby faced rookie quarterback took the helm and surprised everyone by winning four of their last five games, cementing his position as the starting QB heading into 2020.
Perhaps that optimism is why, even though the season had just ended, the father waiting with his teenage son in the check out line in front of me at Barnes & Noble was buying him a new Broncos poster.
It was one of those large, folded up, shrink wrapped posters that look more like an LP album than a poster. The son, who had Down syndrome, proudly held it in his left hand.
The check out line, being long, gave me plenty of time to observe this father-son duo. After a minute or so, the father looked at his son with a face full of love, put his right arm around his shoulder and gave him a big hug. The son just stood there.
But a few seconds latter the son’s left hand that held the poster suddenly began surreptitiously moving up behind his father’s back. When he got over his father’s head, he lovingly tapped his dad with the poster and then quickly returned his hand and poster to his side.
His dad didn’t move. Then, without looking at him, he jabbed his son in the side with his right elbow.
The son didn’t flinch either. He just stood there, waiting. Soon, his arm began moving up behind his dad’s back and again he tapped his dad on the head with the poster.
Again, without looking at him, the dad jabbed his son with his elbow.
This precious little game went on the entire length of the check out line and it told me everything I needed to know about that father and son’s relationship: it was healthy, it was fun, it was thriving, it was love. It was all that any father and son could possibly want.
This post first appeared in NewCommandment.org.
Since 2003 New Commandment Men’s Ministries has helped hundreds of churches throughout North American and around the world recruit teams of men who permanently adopt their widowed and single parents in their congregations for the purpose of donating two hours of service to them one Saturday morning each month. We accomplish this with a free training site called New Commandment Men’s Ministry
Learn how to mobilize your men’s ministry to meet every pressing need in your church here.
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Learn how to form teams of men for every widow, single mom
and fatherless child in your church at NewCommandment.org.
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