"It's (a month past) Father's Day

....and everybody celebrates but me....."

Lyrics here. Video here. The man here? (last post)

I used to think that this song didn't apply to me. Well, directly anyway. It's a great and painful song about how a son is coping with his absent earthly father. He gets a letter that his mom has been saving for years that has some generic advice from his father that doesn't really help much. Thankfully Jeremy comes to the conclusion that his fallible father has been replaced by his heavenly Father. (Which is a sermon I've heard many times....how you see your earthly father translates into how you view your heavenly Father....God doesn't not make mistakes like your dad may have..and all that).

What stuck in my mind, though, was always the last line of the song. "Sometimes I wonder if I will ever grow to look anything like him." It's a completely honest question and, when I examined it closely, I realized that it had me worried. You see, when I was 9 or 10 my parents let me know that my father was not my biological father. My mother had me when she was 18 and met my dad just a few months later. I kind of knew this story growing up, but it never really clicked with me (I was a kid...you don't ponder the deep questions). My dad was the only dad I ever knew and, though my parents were kind of nervous in telling me, I never had any intention of being angry at them or running away to find my "real dad." Never knew him, never will.

But that last line started ringing in my ear. What if I'm walking around some day and I see someone who looks like me...only 17 years older? What would happen? Am I just ignoring a deeper problem? Should I go seek him out? Now, this didn't last very long, but it's something I still think about when I hear this song. As far as I'm concerned, the dad I knew was my "real" dad. I got many good qualities from him. There was no reason to look any further on earth for someone to replace him.

One thing I forgot to mention....My dad passed away in 1993 at the ripe old age of 39. When I first heard this song in 1995 it struck me that I didn't "celebrate" father's day anymore the way I used to. It was a tough song to hear in the beginning. But, in 1996 my mom was remarried and in 1998 I got married myself. Then, by Father's Day 1999, I was a father as well!

So again I find a BES song that has applied to many stages of my life and can continually have new meaning for me. How does he do it???