Are you familiar with the expression “you are your father’s son” or maybe “you are your mother’s daughter”? I am because I have heard it many times as I grew up.

Jesus actually says in John 14: 7 ^“If you know me, you will know^* my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” We typically read this passage as a reminder that Jesus is the best picture we will ever have of God. But I have often thought it can be read as a reminder that Jesus was “parented” by his earthly parents Mary and Joseph. And he learned to be a man by watching his earthly father Joseph.

A little over 5 years ago my father died. As dad aged and moved ever closer to his own death I realized that there were many things about him that I did not know. I also knew that was his choice. He had a difficult childhood following the death of his mother and he never talked about those years. I knew he was a veteran of World War II but when I was growing up I never heard speak about those years and what he experienced. But I always knew they were very life changing for him. There were 2 things that gave me a clue about that part of his life.

 The first was when I read Tom Brokaw’s The Greatest Generation. As I read that book I saw my father. I understood better what growing up during the depression meant to him… and my mother. When Brokaw wrote about these men and women who "answered the call to save the world from the two most powerful and ruthless military machines ever assembled" I for the first time understood my father’s world view. I better understood how dad’s military experience and the GI Bill allowed him to pursue a life long passion for learning and higher education. Brokaw gave me a non personal lens to see my father.

 The second was a carport ceiling that we painted together. Several years before his death I went to visit him. When I arrived I noticed that a part a small part of the car port ceiling had been painted. He shared that he was painting as much as he could each day and then he would stop painting. At that point his health had limited his ability to do much physical labor so I suggested that I paint and he could supervise. Actually what happened was I painted and he talked. He shared things about his mother and step mother that I did not know. He shared a vivid memory of walking through the Philadelphia snow to get a White Castle hamburger. He brought out an album of pictures from Italy and although he could not remember the details I understood how important they were to him. That bucket of paint and car port ceiling provided a very personal lens through which I saw my father in a new way.

As I look back I can see many ways that I am “my father’s son” and I understand that phrase to mean I have been shaped in positive and negative ways by my dad.

I understand that reality to be a good thing. If I have a regret, it is that there were too many years that he and I did not find a car port to paint together, and that I have not found enough opportunities to paint car ports with my own children and with many of you.

Maybe a part of the model for life Jesus is giving us is the need to claim those relationships which have shaped our lives, and actively seek ways to shape the lives of others through word and deed.

This is a growth point for me and maybe for you.

 Have a great day (sorry this is late getting out, but…) and

SHALOM,

Tom Mc