to dad...with love

Father's Day. Images are conjured of backyard BBQ's, laughter, beer cans being opened, and dad relaxing on his chaise lounge.
Unfortunately for many, this is not the case this year. Dads may be overseas, fighting an unrelenting war. Dad is forgotten in a nursing home. Dad has passed on, leaving nothing but happy or sad memories. Dad has been taken out of the picture by selfish adult kids who, for reasons of their own, can't see the wisdom that dad has shown over the years.
I am thinking also of dads who have lost a child for many reasons; be it illness or death, through divorce or simply just not included in the plans of separated moms.
Dad. Daddy.  Pa. Father. "Pops." By any name, he is your own flesh and blood, like it or not. And for the "other dads" out there: stepfathers, fathers in law, adopted dads. They all mean so much to so many. I am lucky because twice over, I have been blessed with two very wonderful fathers in law who have taught me so much! Thank God for them!
On TV, dads were often portrayed as wise and all knowing. Jim Anderson, Ward Cleaver, Pa Walton. Pa Ingalls, Pa Cartwright. Howard Cunningham. We knew that they had things under control, there was no mountain they wouldn't climb for their kids.
The most poignant passage in the Bible was Jesus on the Cross, crying out for his own Father, "Abba, Father, help me! Why have you abandoned me?" There has never been so moving a passage of one who till the very end, needed his own Father to be with Him.
Today, reach out to one who has been a dad to you....he doesn't need to be a biological dad. Just remember to say, "thank you," and to mean it. Life is too short not to.