Father's Day

The first observance of Father's Day took place in 1908 in Fairmont, West Virginia. This was arranged to memorialize the 210 fathers who had died in the Monongah coal-mining tragedy a few months earlier. There are more phone calls on Mother's Day than Father's Day, probably because mothers are the nurturing figures in the home, and there are more homes where just a mother is present, but both days are among the busiest of the year for the telephone company.

Fortunate is the child who has had a stalwart God-fearing father in the home, a father who is truly the head of the house, who in spite of every conceivable problem, puts his family first. The child who has experienced the stability of an earthly father is ready to appreciate a heavenly Father.

As most of my readers know, I am a life-long antiquarian book collector. Among my many historical books, I own several books on male clubs and fraternities such as the Masons, B'nai B'rith, Knights of Columbus, even Rotarians and Elks. In a book describing the Woodmen of the World, a fraternal organization founded in 1890, founder Joseph Root stated that the stability of any male organization depended on having rock-solid fathers as members. It is the gravitas of fathers that give stability to the community, the business world, school system, and even the churches.

A son or daughter, who sees their father active in a church...singing the old hymns, praying, working, giving to God's work, will not be as likely to drift from such roots. The ability of a tree to withstand a storm depends entirely on its root system. As early as in the 1^st century churches, the fathers of the homes determined the integrity of the church.

Not to lessen the importance of the pastor, the music director, or any other staff member of the church, but it is the active, committed fathers of the church that determine the influence of the church. A father who loves his children as much as our heavenly Father loves His bride (the church) will make every effort to support his church in his living and in his giving.

The church was the educational center of early education...elementary, high school and even colleges...it was the fathers of the community who built the school houses. I still remember that no matter how tired he was from working all day, my father would still put on his suit and go to a program at the school (along with my mother) if one of his children was performing in a play or some other school activity, even a ball game.

Fortunate is the student with parents who supported their school activities. Not to lessen the importance of the principal, the teachers, but it is the school board members, the mothers and fathers which determine the influence of the school. The great North Carolina State basketball coach, Jim Valvano said, “my father gave me the greatest gift anyone could give another person: he believed in me.” The last words Valvano ever spoke in a basketball arena, as he was dying with cancer—and everyone who was there would never forget these words—“don't give up. Don't ever give up!”

Fathers might not be as emotional as mothers, but a father probably takes more pride in your accomplishments. My own son said to me, about my two grandsons, both raised on the foreign mission field, both university graduates, “they are both smarter than I am.”

In the college fraternity house you usually will have young men whose fathers were also members of that fraternity. I still believe the greatest sense of male accomplishment is a father & son practice of law, medicine or other business practice (real estate, plumbing, auto repair/dealership, etc.). The very fact that a son can be so enthralled by his father, that he wants to continue his business. Think of the delight of the father who invests all of his knowledge, good will, with his heir-son.

Many of us were not so blessed...our fathers never belonged to a college or secular fraternity, our fathers were not professionals, did not own a business, did not endow us with his political clout, financial expertise, social standing in the community. Like being born with a talent, those born with genetic ancestry, are far ahead of the rest of us. It is like being the recipient of a famous family name, ancestral family holdings left in a trust...genes giving us advantage in health or appearance. Most of us only have the begotten biologicals which God, in His infinite mercy has granted to us. One man, plus God, and anything is possible, regardless of your genealogy. With the favoritism shown by a loving earthly father, the magnetism shown by a heavenly Father, you can overcome anything that the world did not provide.

On this Father's Day, rejoice in your parentage. In the council chambers of eternity, God selected you. He might not be everything that you would have designed in a father...healthy, wealthy, handsome, intellectual, gregarious; he is not perfect, but very few are, but he is yours.

My father, the hardest working man I have ever known, devoted to God, family and country. At his casket, I asked the funeral director to put my hand on his. I did not think of the things he had not done for me, but of his working hands, hands which helped home-deliver his four children, hands that provided a wonderful home and life for my mother, hands that plowed the fields and milked the cows, hands that built a large part of the church house, helped maintain the school house, worked on an army base during WWII. His working hands put four children through college and provided comfort for family and friends. Thank God that most of our fathers did the best they knew with what they had.

Faith of our fathers, living still,  in spite of dungeon, fire, and sword; (Faith of Our Fathers - Hymn)

Father's Day

In an effort to save some vision after I returned from active military problems, the Army sent me to the best specialist in the world in opthalmology, famed Dr. Richard Simmons of Boston. To show how long I was under his care his first operation on both eyes were in 1960 and the last surgery he was assisted by his daughter, Ruth Ann, who was a child when I first met the Simmons family, but who was an ophthalmologist assisting at the last surgery. The large and very marvelous staff of Dr. Simmons, consisted of many doctors and technical personnel.

One day, a young Indian doctor said to me, “I understand you graduated at Chapel Hill. I went to school at Chapel Hill and graduated from medical school there.” In the conversation, I told him I had traveled the world many times and had been in his home country of India. I said to Dr. Ashton, “Where were you raised in India?” He said, “You have never heard of the place, it is called Trivandrum.” I said, “Are you kidding me? I was in Trivandrum and had one of the most wonderful experiences of my life there.”

I was on the beach at Goa and a young man approached me about buying some relics from him. Of course I was accustomed to this all over the world, but never, did I realize the surprise that our blessed Lord had in store for me in making the acquaintance of this young man. I said, “I”m not interested in these relics. I do like nice jewelry.” He said, “I have several pieces of jewelry that I brought from Tibet. I would like to show them to you.” I walked several miles with him, learning that he was one of the many Tibetan refugees that had escaped to India, until we arrived at the humble home where he and his family lived. Having come from abject poverty myself, the poverty of other people does not bother me at all because I learned long ago that we are not stuck where we start. He crawled under a bed and brought out several pieces of jewelry including nine matching blue sapphire stones set in a ring. (I'm sitting here holding it now. It is not for sale.) On the porch, in a rickety chair sat his father. (This is a Father's Day message!!) It was at that time that he introduced me to his father and I heard the blessed story that I want to share with you.

God gave me the blessed sense when I lost all of my eye sight to gather from a person's hand the warmth and genuineness of the person's soul. I'm thankful to have experienced this many times in my life. These were Buddhists, some of the kindest people on God's earth. But as I took his hand and said, “I want to pray for you.” The father and son both said, “Please.” Then, the son told me the wonderful yet tragic story of their escape from Tibet after the Chinese had come in and raped the country.

The father had stood up against the Chinese and he had been beaten almost to death. Both legs had been tragically and permanently broken. His two sons, at that time one fourteen (with whom I had made the initial contact, and was still there) the other thirteen who had died shortly after their arrival in Goa suffering from what I ascertain as acute asthma, but on a handmade stretcher, the two of them had carried their father through these treacherous Himalayan Mountains. over 100 miles by land until they had made contact with someone on a river with a sampan [Sampans are generally used for fishing or transportation, in coastal areas or rivers. It is unusual for a sampan to sail far from land as they do not have the means to survive rough weather. The word "sampan" literally means "three planks" in Cantonese from the words “sam” and “pan”. This refers to the hull design, which consists of a flat bottom (made from one plank) joined to two sides (the other two planks).] Then onto the refuge of the Tibetan refugee encampment in Trivandrum on the coast of Goa. A Buddhist ritualistic memorial was near the house where the father could watch and I assumed that the remains of the deceased son were interred there. Their surviving son said, “We lost our mother early in life but our father is our most precious possession. We were both determined that he would survive and we would bring him to a place of earthly kindness.”

In this day, when fathers are ridiculed on television, when many children grow up in this world (37% of all children are born to single mothers and have no father identity) it is a marvelous opportunity we have as the sons of faithful fathers to honor them.

At my own father's funeral, the huge crowd sang the wonderful hymn, “Faith of Our Fathers.” One of the ministers said, “A father's funeral has already been preached by looking at his children, four children, all college graduates, all four a credit to their parents and their community.” One of the older preachers said, “during The Great Depression, I remember how many heads of hair he cut at ten cents each.” Another minister said, “He was the life-blood of this church and most of the building, the education facility, all of these things were built by him.”

My father never spent one penny on alcohol, one penny on tobacco products, one penny on gambling. I never knew him to go to a car race, a horse race, a dog race. His entire life revolved around his family, his church and the school (chairman of the school board). He worked on his tobacco farm, the show place of the community, all during the week in the hot summer or whatever. Then would stand on his feet all day on Saturday and all holiday weekends, cutting hair in the barber shop in the local town. He kept cows, hogs, chickens, and did everything else to make a good living for his family. Including, working all winter building houses and repairing others. I

never knew my father to hang out at his cousin's country store or waste time, because he felt every minute of his life was valuable. His wife, his children, his home and his church were exemplary. On the day of my mother's funeral, I went out early to help him greet the family who would be arriving at the house. He had already been to the church and cut the grass. He said, “All my children's friends must see our beautiful church at its best and your mother's funeral must be perfect.”

I have one son, Dr. John Morris, of whom I am very proud because of his ambition as a medical school student, theology student, and the many years he and his wife spent on the foreign mission field. His mother and grandmother felt they could do a better job rearing him than me but the greatest joy of my life is the bond he has with his two sons. His pride in their accomplishments as university students and the great expectations he has for them as a lawyer and an engineer.

Fatherhood is earned, It is not just a biological accident. I was blessed to have a hard working father of tremendous faith (I was amazed how educated he became when I went to college). I had the thrill of knowing grandfathers of tremendous faith and character; uncles and even neighbors who demonstrated in their lives the character we appreciate in men of reliability. On this father's day, help us to remember that only those who have known a wonderful earthly father can really appreciate the graciousness of our Heavenly Father.