Job.

"'Have you considered my servant Job?'"  Job 1:8 (NRSV)

Job was a wealthy landowner who treated his workers justly, provided employment for the community, ran his household honestly, worshipped God, and prayed for his children.

"I delivered the poor who cried, and the orphan who had no helper.....

.....I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy.....

.....I was eyes to the blind, and feet to the lame, I was father to the needy, and I championed the cause of the stranger.

I broke the fangs of the unrighteous, and made them drop their prey from their teeth."  Job 29:12-17 (NRSV)

This is the portrait of a man who pleased God.

He was a loving father to everyone.

Our fathers could not do better than to follow this model today.

[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.]

Photo Credit: Phillip Medhurst Flickr via Compfight cc