It’s interesting to me that Mother’s Day is more anticipated by children and less so by mothers. (In all honesty, mothers don’t really enjoy the day until the grandkids come along.) Father’s Day has always been held at a different level somehow. Many women and children struggle with this particular holiday observance. I have collected a few stories that may help us feel better about this day, regardless of the examples we have seen in our own lives.
Jonathan’s mother died when he was very young, so his father raised him. Always enjoying football together, Jonathan wanted to play on his school’s team. Small in size, the coach didn’t let him play very often, but his father never failed to attend the games.
One day, Jonathan went to the coach before practice and explained his father had died that morning. The coach expressed his sorrow and said not to worry about practice or the game on Saturday.
Saturday came and so did Jonathan. He went up to the coach and begged to be put into the game. Their team was already losing badly, so the coach decided to put him in. Play after play the losing team gained yardage until the teams were tied. It was the final play of the game when Jonathan caught the ball and ran it in for a touchdown.
After the game, the coach ran up to Jonathan and said, “Kid, I can’t believe it. You were fantastic! How did you do it?” He looked at the coach, with tears in his eyes, and said, “Well, you knew my dad died, but did you know that my dad was blind?” The young man swallowed hard and forced a smile, “Dad came to all my games, but today was the first time he could see me play, and I wanted to show him I could do it.
Some years ago on a hot summer day in South Florida, a little boy went swimming in the old swimming hole behind his house. He didn’t see the alligator that was swimming toward the shore. His father ran toward the water yelling to his son as loudly as he could. Hearing his voice, the little boy became alarmed and made a U-turn to swim to his father. It was too late. Just as he reached his father, the alligator reached him. From the dock, the father grabbed his little boy by the arms just as the alligator snatched his legs. An incredible tug-of-war began between the two. The alligator was much stronger than the father, but the father was much too passionate to let go. A farmer happened to drive by, heard his screams, raced from his truck, took aim shooting the alligator.
Remarkably, after weeks in the hospital, the little boy survived. His legs were extremely scarred by the vicious attack of the animal. On his arms, were deep scratches where his father’s fingernails dug into his flesh in his effort to hang on to the son he loved.
A newspaper reporter, interviewing the boy after the trauma, asked if he would show him his scars. The boy lifted his pant legs. And then, with obvious pride, he said to the reporter, “But look at my arms. I have these scars because My Dad wouldn’t let go!”
It was Father’s Day, and the firefighter had just returned from church and was looking forward to a trip to the local car show. He had already opened his daughter’s gift and was wearing it: a T-‐shirt that said “World’s Coolest Dad”. Then the call came. A house fire. He was sorry to say goodbye to the day, but he took his job seriously and was ready to go.
At the firehouse he learned there was a child trapped inside the house. He and his partner jumped into the fire truck with heavy but prayerful hearts.
A small crowd was gathered in front of the home. Smoke billowed out of the front door. As the two firefighters jumped from the truck, a bystander ran up to them yelling that a baby was inside. “Do something, quick!” Just then a man broke through the smoke, coming out of the front of the house, screaming that he couldn’t find him. Through a coughing fit he begged the firefighters to find his baby.
They looked at each other and together, they raced inside the house. They traveled along the floor slowly feeling their way around. The fire was intense and the smoke blocked all hopes of seeing anything. After what seemed like hours, the partner signaled that it was hopeless and they needed to get out before the roof caved in.
Feeling desperate, the firefighter lurched forward stretching his arms forward and he felt something. The boy’s arm was limp, but he grabbed it and snatched the boy up. Through the blinding smoke he raced through the house to the outside. The boy appeared to be two years old and he wasn’t breathing. Beginning mouth to mouth right away, the firefighter prayed the boy would begin breathing. Soon the EMTs were there and the two heroes sat under the tree catching their breath. The firefighter looked down to see his “Coolest Dad” T-‐shirt. It was filthy with smoke stain. “Look at this,” he said out loud. “You can hardly see what it says anymore.”
A neighbor standing nearby said, “That’s okay, today you guys gave another dad the greatest gift anyone ever could.”
“If Abraham reasoned thus—If Jesus Christ was the Son of God, and John discovered that God the Father of Jesus Christ had a Father, you may suppose that He had a Father also. Where was there ever a son without a father? And where was there ever a father without first being a son? Whenever did a tree or anything spring into existence without a progenitor? And everything comes in this way. Paul says that which is earthly is in the likeness of that which is heavenly, Hence if Jesus had a Father, can we not believe that He had a Father also? I despise the idea of being scared to death at such a doctrine, for the Bible is full of it. (Joseph Smith, TPJS, pg. 373)
