³ Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, ⁴ who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. – 2 Corinthians 1:3-4

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

I hope this finds you well.

This Sunday is Father’s Day. I wonder what comes into your mind when you think about your Father? For some of us we may have only happy thoughts. For others of us we may have only painful thoughts. For some of us it might be a mixture of the two. Whatever feelings we have, none of us will have had the perfect Father. All Dads, no matter how great they are, have flaws in some way. However, our heavenly Father does not. The Bible tells us over and over again that God is perfect. In our verses from 2 Corinthians we have a description of what our perfect heavenly Father is like. He is described as “the Father of compassion.” This means he is perfectly loving, caring, considerate, kind, and gentle towards his children. These things enable him to be “the God of all comfort.” As our perfect heavenly Father, he knows his children. He knows who we are and what we are like. He knows our strengths and weaknesses; our joys and sorrows; our fears and worries. And as our perfect Father who is compassionate he is able to provide us with the comfort and care that we need. This is especially true in times of trouble. It may not always feel like it, but we can be assured that he is there and is longing to give us the comfort that we need. And over the last 18 months many of us have been able to testify to our heavenly Father’s compassionate comfort in our times of trouble. In small ways and big ways God has shown us his compassion and comfort and reminded us in fresh ways that he is our perfect heavenly Father.

I don’t know how you responded to my opening question. It may have made you happy. It may have made you sad. It may have been happiness tinged with sadness. However, you responded, please be assured that we have a Father who is perfect in every way. We are his children and he loves us with a great compassion that leads him to want to comfort us in every way. Why not think back to times in your life when God has comforted you and give thanks to him for his Fatherly compassion.

Yours in Christ

Mark