Thank you for being a decent person

I would rather scrub down the bathroom than look for a greeting card.  I approach the racks in the store with dread.  Before me a thousand options are displayed.  It is not that there are so many to choose from, but so few that express what I feel. 

And so this week as I was looking for a card for my beloved father-in-law, I scanned over the crowd of cards, many of which could be automatically eliminated.  New this year, I found an entire section of Fathers’ Day cards from pets to their owners – presumably dogs and cats sending greetings to their masters.  Really.  I am not making this up. There were the usual mushy cards dripping with such lavish generic sentiments as to not be real.  There were the insults in an attempt to be funny, which always makes me think of Shakespeare’s “Beware the jest, for therein lies much truth.”  And as always, there were the typically lame golfing, fishing, and lawn-mowing cards.

Somehow the same phrase was repeated on numerous cards this year:  “Thank you for being a decent person.”  Has Fathers’ Day come to that?  My dictionary defines “decent” as being “passable, good enough.”   That hardly even warrants the cost of the card.

Where are the cards for the fathers of character, the mighty men of valor, the strong and good, those to whom one looks for guidance and protection, those who provide sacrificially, love their families outrageously, who know that the inheritance they leave behind is marked by a listening ear, a voice of wisdom, and running beside while teaching their children to ride without training wheels?  Those who pursue being faithful to God and faithful to their families.  Those who reveal the evidence of God by how they live day by day in relationship to Him.  Those who love God Almighty and love like Him because they know the LORD as “Abba, Father.”  There is no need for an autopsy to reveal love, truth, goodness, kindness, wisdom, and the hope on which those fathers stand.

My favorite cards this year were those of the super heroes.  Because that is what God intended fathers to be, men of great courage and valiant deeds.  A cape to earn and proudly wear, not just a passing grade.