I am blessed to have had, you might say, four fathers in my life. I cherish each one in different ways. I am thankful for my “real” earthly father, Tom Beasley. He was born in 1920 and raised in a small town in North Texas called Eliasville, which is now a ghost town. He grew up in the Depression, and when he was eighteen, his father died from rabies. He was the oldest of four boys, so he had to work to support his family and then, when World War II started, he went off to war in the Pacific. When he returned, he wanted to go to college, but he had to work to support both his mother and his new family, so he became a carpenter, a “framer” of houses. He built his own house in the late 1940’s, the house I grew up in. I was the youngest of five, and while my Daddy was not the most affectionate man (none from his generation really were), the earliest memory I have is of him carrying me in his arms. He didn’t tell me he loved me often until he was older in life, and then he tried to make up for that by telling me often. But I knew all along how much he loved me by how hard he worked for our family. He worked with his hands, long hard hours in the hot summer sun and the colder winter wind. I can still see his old Red Wing boots that he took off when he came in from work. How thankful I am today for memories of working with him in the summer, the smell of new lumber early in the morning as we arrived on the job in his pickup. Or working with him over Christmas break, the smell of wood on an outside fire he had made to warm our hands. He loved Bob Wills, spicy Mexican food, his garden, and his family. He taught me the joy of hard work and how to laugh. I love him.
I am thankful for my older brother, Ron Beasley, who really was a father to me in so many ways. Ron was 5 years older than me, and he was my idol all through my life. When I was younger, I wanted to be like him, but when I was a teenager and he was in college, he really became my mentor and role model. I would not be who I am without him. He taught me to get up early and start each day reading the Bible and spending time in prayer. He taught me to love Scripture and showed me, fresh and new, the passionate Love of God. He taught me in so many ways how to be a man, how to love your wife, how to treat people and care for them. Although he was not my real father, he really was a father to me in ways that God knew I needed. He was a psychologist and counselor, and the number of people he helped throughout his lifetime is enormous. He passed so suddenly from this life in 2017, and I can hardly bear to think of that. I love him.
I am thankful for another man who became a father to me, and who was like a father for almost 30 years. He is my father-in-law, Sam Williamson. Sam passed from this life in 2017–every time I think of him I well up with tears. He and his incredible wife Goldie became another set of parents to me as my parents aged and passed on. Sam was there to teach me how to be a husband with my new bride, and then how to raise boys when our sons came along. I was always so glad when he and Goldie came to visit because there were so many things around the house he could fix! He, Jackson, and Colton and I built a tree house in our backyard together. What great grandparents they were to our two sons–how they invested their lives into them. I loved driving places with Sam when he came to visit and listening to his down to earth, practical wisdom. He had a very caring, nurturing side, and people loved him. I loved him and still do.
Those are my three “fathers,” men who invested their lives into mine. I am saddened that as we celebrate Father’s Day there are many who did not know their fathers, or don’t have fathers, or never had a close relationship with their fathers. That is a tragedy. But I am thankful for the church, the gift of community God has given to all people. Jesus once remarked that those who follow Him will receive a hundred times as much in this life and, he adds, “homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields, and in the age to come, eternal life” (Mark 10:30). Much of that blessing in this life comes from the gift of community we can have in church. In my life, my brother and my father-in-law became fathers to me in ways that my real father could not. And I have had so many other “fathers” and mentors in my life who have blessed me in countless ways, so many of them through churches I have attended. I think the Covid pandemic has taught us that we need people to be human—we need church and community to enjoy life and really live. If you are one today who doesn’t have a close earthly father, I pray that God will supply another “father,” and I would encourage you to pray for that and to “seek, ask, knock” by becoming involved in a local church.
So, who is my fourth father? You probably guessed, but He is our Father, our passionate, self-less, loving, giving, creative, full-of-life and joy Father, the one “from whom his whole family on earth derives its existence” (Eph. 3:15). Although God is our Father, God is not male or female. Rather, we as humans, both male and female, were created in His image. Scripture is replete with descriptions of God in terms of a loving Father but also in terms of a caring, nurturing mother. God is the best possible parent. He not only created us and every good and perfect gift, but He also humbled Himself, came to us, suffered with us and for us. He has set us free from the “bad stuff” in life, even death. God has been so much a Father to me—he listens every time I call on Him; He orders my busy days; He works sad things out to something better; His love never let’s go of me. He teaches me how to be a parent. He patiently teaches me how to live life to the full. I love Him because He first loved me.