This Sunday is Father’s Day. I hope you are able to celebrate your father in an appropriate way. I sent my dad a Tim Horton’s gift card because that is where he likes to hang out in his retirement years. But the important thing is that I let him know how grateful I am for his wonderful model of life and faith for me. Because of the great dad I was given, I know that I am responsible for passing on the legacy of strong character and tender-heartedness to my two daughters. I hope and pray that I am doing that.

My dad is a big man, big in body but even bigger in character. He has always stood for things that matter. He has always been deeply honest: I was taught early and often to tell and live the truth. But the best and most obvious part of my dad is that he is soft-hearted. Its a surprising thing about him really, especially because he is such a big guy. Its almost like he can’t help himself, but dad is a giver, not only towards his kids but to people he knows and meets. The number of times that he given away money or some form of practical help to people is almost legendary in those who know my dad. Somehow, he has been able to combine this mix of being both strong and tender at the same time. Thanks Dad. Thanks for being such a rare breed of man and for inspiring my life in ways that still live on.

I once had a tree in my front yard that was broken and bent. It was like that when we moved in and I considered replacing it. But I am tender-hearted towards trees (a specific tenderness that hasn’t yet translated to my daughter’s cat — OK, so I’m not perfect). I decided that I would try to save our little bent and broken tree. It was badly misshapen, beaten down by harsh conditions, without any sign of care or protection. I decided to do the obvious thing and stake it, but in order to reshape it, I double-staked it, pulling it two ways in order to create a straight direction for growth. A process like that takes time.

Maybe fathering is like this. A father at his best is the double stake in the ground next to a young soul, firmly planted in the ground to provide a straight and true guide. But fathering is a double stake, the stability of a strong character balanced by the surprise of tender-heartedness. It takes a double stake to make a young tree grow straight and strong.

This Sunday we are going to honor dads of course. But we hope to do even more than that: we want to inspire dads.

Enjoy your weekend and we hope to see you this Sunday at 9:29 or 11:11 am.

Bob Osborne