My Father.

As for my biological father, I now think of him more as a brother than a father.

It has been said that you become an adult when you realize that your parents are people just like you.

When I came to this understanding I realized that my father had done the best he could with a difficult upbringing and a sensitive nature.

For years I had blamed him for not showing us enough love and affection, but I realized that he was not loved as a child and was incapable of loving us in the way that we needed.

I forgave him.

Now he is to me another fellow human being on the journey of life.

"'And call no one your father on earth, for you have one Father - the one in heaven.'"  Matthew 23:9 (NRSV)


[Scripture quotations (marked NRSV) are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and are used by permission.  All rights reserved.]