Heavenly Father

Author and YouTube video producer Kim Tate shares her story of finding an intimate relationship with her Abba Father in heaven.

It’s one of my most vivid memories as a girl: sitting on the edge of my bed, face angled toward the window, eyes peeled for my daddy. My heart would race as a new set of headlights approached—maybe that’s him—before sinking as the car passed into the distance. Still, I’d hold on to hope. From the time my parents divorced—I was four—I looked forward to these planned outings with my dad.

Where is he? Did he forget about me? Daddy was always out and about. All I could do was wait, even as daylight turned to dusk and dusk to night. Tears would gather as I realized he wasn’t coming. Again. More than once I thought, I must not really matter. He must not really love me. I was longing for a relationship with my father.

Kim lost her virginity before she turned 16. This brought feelings of shame, because her mother had always preached abstinence until marriage. After that summer, she decided to abstain, but without God she was a slave to sin. So, during college and law school she gave in to living life on her own terms.

During her second year at law school, she fell in love with a fellow student named Bill. After graduating, they moved to Madison to start their careers. But Kim was miserable, so she had a strange idea, “I could pray and maybe God would miraculously intervene to get us out of Madison.”

As I prayed, I started thinking, If I want God to do something for me, I should probably do something for him. Like go to church. Before long I felt convicted about our “living in sin.” So, Bill and I decided to have a private wedding ceremony on Valentine’s Day.

About one year later, Bill couldn’t wait to tell me he’d visited a new church that morning. The following Sunday, we visited together. By the end of service, I was in tears. For the first time, I heard the true gospel preached, and it rocked me. Finally, I understood why Jesus died on that cross. Finally, I saw myself as God saw me—a sinner in need of redemption. I asked God to forgive me, and I received Jesus as my Lord and Savior. For all my prayers that God would save me from Madison, his plan, all along, had been to save me in Madison.

Looking back now, from a distance of 25 years, I remember how studying the Book of Deuteronomy was a pivotal part of my early Christian walk. One word, in particular, jumped off the page. Deuteronomy 10:20 and 13:4 mention “holding fast”—or clinging, as some translations have it—to God. It meant relationship—close relationship. Yet it was hard to fathom. The God of the universe would let me cling to him?

What an unsurpassable gift for that little girl staring out of the window, waiting for her dad, and wondering if she really mattered. My Abba Father was letting me know that I could enjoy an intimate relationship with him forever.

Rob Kenney’s YouTube channel, “Dad, how do I?” went viral last year. Kenney released his first video shortly after the coronavirus pandemic was declared. He wanted to provide practical advice (“How to fix most running toilets”) and emotional support (“I am proud of you!”). But in a time defined by isolation and loneliness, his messages resonated with far more than the 30 or 40 subscribers he expected. Now he surpassed 3.4 million subscribers and 15 million views.

When “Good Morning America” referred to the 57-year-old as the “Internet’s Dad,” followers flooded him with stories about their parents, broken relationships, and traumatic experiences. Kenney said, “It breaks my heart that so many people need my channel.”

The seeds for his videos were planted in Kenney’s tumultuous childhood. When his parents divorced, his dad gained custody. His mom was legally declared unfit to parent as she turned to alcohol. Soon after, Kenney’s dad met another woman. On the weekend, he would stock up his kids with groceries and then leave them as he drove an hour away. After a year, he gathered his children to deliver a devastating message: “I’m done raising kids.”

Kenney, who was 14 at the time, moved in with his 23-year-old newlywed brother in a 280-square-foot trailer. His teenage experience was full of anger, sorrow, and confusion as he vowed to never cause his own children such pain. That pledge broadened when he realized he wasn’t the only kid without a dad around, so he doubled-down and decided he’d also help anyone else who needed a father figure.

Once Kenney reached his early 50s, feeling like he had accomplished his goal of raising two good adults. He thought he had plenty more life to live, zeroing in on the second part of his vow: to help others. His daughter says “I genuinely think he was put on Earth to be a dad.”

Over the past year, Kenney has leaned on his faith to prevent himself from feeling too overwhelmed. His early-morning habit of reading the Bible provides him with calmness and clarity. Last Father’s Day, his followers mailed him scores of cards (some handmade, many heartfelt). The fact that strangers are celebrating him at all reflects a man who found time to share his story—and a world that was desperate to hear it.

You can view his YouTube channel here.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Ultimately, our Father in heaven provides just what lonely and desperate people need to hear: He knows us individually and personally (Ps. 139:1-24), he is available 24/7 for fellowship (Matt. 6:9; 1 John 1:3), he carries our burdens (1 Pet. 5:7), and he satisfies every need we have (Ps. 23:1-6).

Aly Femia keeps an Amazon-branded smart speaker in the room with her son so he can listen to lullabies. But she had no idea how comfortable her baby had become with the speaker. In the footage from her baby video monitor, she overheard a conversation that her son was having with … well … Alexa.

Having woken during the middle of the night, the boy turns and says, “Alexa,” which turned on the smart speaker, “I need daddy.” Now that Alexa is listening, it replies with, “What should I add?” The toddler replies, “daddy.”

We’re going to guess he was hoping Alexa was going to go get his dad. Maybe so he could get him another glass of water before he falls asleep. Or some other bedtime procrastination technique that kids are good at—another bedtime story.

Alexa then hilariously replied, “I’ve added daddy to your shopping list, is there anything else?” The adorable boy replied, “Urm … no,” which might be the sweetest thing ever.

Femia posted the video on TikTok where it has totaled over 3.7 million views because it’s simply hilarious and adorable. Commentors on social media have been wondering what exactly Alexa put on its shopping list, but industry analysts are sure that, whatever product it is, Femia will be seeing ads for it on all her devices for weeks.

Possible Preaching Angle:

In moments of crisis, we can call on God, not just as a distant Creator, but as a loving Dad who knows and cares about us. Even if it doesn’t seem feasible or logical, our heavenly Father is always near.

There was a man who was a good husband and dad. He loved his family faithfully, was always around, steady, and took care of them. His influence, even if wasn’t realized, was central in everyone’s life.

But his family didn’t fully appreciate the scope of his love until one day when they found his journal. Upon opening it, they could see the backstory to their memories. Their happy experiences were intricately planned and carefully executed. He even reflected about how glad he was that he gave his wife and children such joy.

When they could see the backstory, these previously hidden details, in the journal, the family was filled with a new kind of appreciation and love for their dad and husband. They were welcomed into the quiet place of intentional planning and loving execution. They could see how they were central to everything that he had done. Thumbing through the journal, they realized his love for them engulfed their entire experience.

In Ephesians 1, it’s as if the children of God are permitted to thumb through the journal of their heavenly Father. Reading through it, we find out that the experiences that we enjoy so much were carefully and intricately planned. God has set his love on his people before the foundation of the world, and he carried it out in real-time. What’s more, these thoughtful, intricate, and loving plans gave our Father you himself. He loves to shower blessing on his children.

As a 17-year-old Anne Graham Lotz, the daughter of Billy and Ruth Graham, was involved in a car accident. Speeding carelessly down a windy mountain road, Anne smashed into her neighbor, Mrs. Pickering. Anne was too afraid to tell her father about the accident, so for the rest of the day she kept avoiding him. When she finally came home, she tried to tiptoe around her dad, but there he was, standing in the kitchen.

Anne tells what happened next:

I paused for what seemed a very long moment frozen in time. Then I ran to him and threw my arms around his neck …. I told him about my wreck—how I'd driven too fast and smashed into the neighbor's car. I told him it wasn't her fault; it was all mine. As I wept on his shoulder, he said four things to me:

• "Anne, I knew all along about your wreck. Mrs. Pickering came straight up the mountain and told me—and I was just waiting for you to come and tell me yourself."
• "I love you."
• "We can fix the car."
• "You are going to be a better driver because of this."

Anne says, "Sooner or later, all of us are involved in some kind of wreck—it may be your own fault or someone else's. When the damage is your fault, there's a good chance you'll be confronted by the flashing blue lights of the morality police. But my father gave me a deeper understanding of what it means to experience the loving, forgiving embrace of my heavenly Father."

Ron Fournier, editorial director for The National Journal, has covered the careers of numerous politicians, including the last several presidents. President George W. Bush left quite an impression on him. According to Fournier, President Bush always remembered names of his staff's family. The president also insisted that hard work, even at the White House, should never be an excuse to let family life suffer.

In the summer of 1999, Fournier had scheduled an exclusive interview with then-Governor George W. Bush. Bush called Fournier at the appointed time, but interrupted the reporter in the middle of the first question.

"What's all that noise in the background, Fournier?" he asked.

"I'm at the pool with my kids, governor."

Governor Bush replied, "Then what are you doing answering your phone?" They quickly ended the interview.

Possible Preaching Angles: (1) Fatherhood; Parenting; Family; (2) The Fatherhood of God—This story also can show the way God the Father is interested in us as individuals.

In a 2012 interview with The New Yorker, rock legend Bruce Springsteen said that his broken relationship with his father lives on in his songs. For example, in the song, "Adam Raised a Cain," the younger Springsteen sings about the father who "walks these empty rooms / looking for something to blame / You inherit the sins / You inherit the flames." The songs were a way of talking to his silent and distant father. Springsteen said,

My dad was very nonverbal—you couldn't really have a conversation with him. I had to make my peace with that, but I had to have a conversation with him, because I needed to have one. It ain't the best way to go about it, but that was the only way I could, so I did, and eventually he did respond. He might not have liked the songs, but I think he liked that they existed. It meant that he mattered.

The past, though, is anything but past. Bruce Springsteen admitted his yearning for what he calls "Daaaddy!"

My parents' struggles, it's the subject of my life. It's the thing that eats at me and always will …. Those wounds stay with you, and you turn them into a language and a purpose …. [The musician] T-Bone Burnett said that rock and roll is all about "Daaaddy!" It's one embarrassing scream of "Daaaddy!"

Then gesturing toward the band onstage, he said, "We're repairmen—repairmen with a toolbox. If I repair a little of myself, I'll repair a little of you. That's the job."

A study from Penn State researchers published in the journal Child Development tracked nearly 200 families over a seven year period. Not surprisingly, the study found that kids generally spend increasing amounts of one-on-one time with their parents in the early years of adolescence. But time with mom and dad starts to drop when the teenager hits about the age of 15.

However, the longitudinal study also found at least one surprising result: teens still need time with dad. One of the researchers put it this way:

The stereotype that teenagers spend all their time holed up in their rooms or hanging out with friends is … just a stereotype. Our research shows that well into the adolescent years, teens continue to spend time with their parents and that this shared time, especially shared time with fathers has important implications for adolescents' … adjustment.

More specifically, the study noted that, generally speaking, the more time teens spend with their dads, the higher their self-esteem. Also, the more time teens spend with their dads in a group setting, the better their social skills.

Ann Crouter, Dean of Health and Human Development at Penn State, says that teens with involved fathers "may develop higher general self-worth because their fathers go beyond social expectations to devote undivided attention to them."

The devil tempts us to bring us down, but God tests us to bring us up.