Father's Day 2024

Father’s Day is…well…only days away. I’m feeling both ends of the “fatherhood emotional spectrum” this year.

My relationship with my dad was amazing for the first 20 years, painfully non-existent for the next 25 years, and restored-but-scarred for the few years before he died in 2016, at the young age of 74.

Today, as I think about Father’s Day, this phrase from the middle of Psalm 90 keeps popping into my head…

“So teach us to number our days…” (Psalm 90:12a, BSB)

To be clear, this whole chapter is not about parenting. But it is about time.

In this chapter we find phrases like these:

“…through all generations.” (v1)

“…from everlasting to everlasting…” (v2)

“For in Your sight a thousand years are but a day that passes…” (v4)

“…in the morning…by evening…” (v6)

“The length of our days is seventy years – or eighty if we are strong…” (v10)

“So teach us to number our days…” (v12)

“…that we may be glad all our days.” (v14)

As I type this, the entire Ferrin 5 is at home. All under one roof.

Sarah has graduated from college. Caleb is home for a few weeks after his first year at CSU (and heads to Cascades Camp next week for the summer). Hannah is wrapping up her freshman year of high school. (So she’s stuck with Kari and me for 3 more years. Pray for her. wink, wink)

Barring a tragedy, I know the Ferrin 5 will be together many times in the future. But this is the first time I can look at that future and be unsure of when it will happen.

(Insert pause for tissue wipe here.)

Being a dad is the best.

Correction…Being their dad is the best.

I don’t know what the next few weeks will bring. Let alone the next few years or decades.

What I do know is this. I need to number my days. And cherish each one.

Happy Father’s Day.

Keith