Growing up, my dad taught me a lot of things. He’d grown up post-war in the 1940s on the land, and when I was young it seemed like he knew how to do everything. Thankfully he taught me the skills he had learned - basic carpentry, car maintenance, the importance of looking after your tools - from a very young age. When we moved from the city to the country he taught me a new set of skills: fencing, earthworks as we built an extension, and how to chop down a tree.

Dad also taught me about the love of a Saviour. He came to Christ as a young adult, and fostered a legacy of faith in his family as we grew up. He taught me what it meant to be a man of God, to live with my life centred on Christ and in obedience to Him. There is so much that Dad can continue to teach me.

Sadly, my dad has Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Parkinson’s Disease, which has limited the time we will have in a father-son relationship as adults. Dreams I had of trips together, adventures to be had, went unrealised as he grew older and the disease progressed. I am now also a dad, and as my children grow, it has birthed in me a great desire to have the kind of relationship with my own children that I have with my dad.

Since becoming a father, I’ve had a glimpse of how God must feel about us. To love a child unconditionally, no matter what they do, and to want nothing but the best for them no matter what decisions and choices they make. Psalm 103 reminds us that, “As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him.”

More than just compassion, Matthew 7:9-11 builds even further on this picture of a loving father providing for his children - “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!”

As I watch my kids grow, I know that I would be devastated to miss out on a relationship with my children. But knowing how much greater God loves us, it has struck me how painful it must be for our heavenly Father to have His children, us, reject Him.

This Father’s Day, my aim is to love my children and strive to be the best father I can be. I want to honour my own father and cherish the time I have with him. But most of all I want to thank my heavenly Father for loving me as His child, and sacrificing His Son for me, and to leave a legacy of faith for my own children and to see them grow in their faith and understanding of who Jesus is.

— James Burke

Fathers have an amazing opportunity to leave a legacy of faith with their children. How are you going to leave a legacy of faith with yours?