We each have parents, a mother and a father who brought us into this world, gave us this clay structure that houses our spirit. We are their child; they love us and care for us, often as one of several in the family. However, most of us never think about what came before the clay? What gave the clay life? The clay was given life by the spirit that came from God. We are literally God’s spirit offspring. If that is true, why isn’t it more commonly known? Why didn’t I hear my parents say to me, “We provided you with your physical body, but Heavenly Father provided you with your spirit”? You and I were spirits before you were you with a physical body and we have always existed as intelligent entities, waiting for our turn to experience earth. We need to be thankful that our parents never aborted us or we would have missed out on this opportunity. We may have had another opportunity through different parents but we haven’t been privy to that knowledge yet. If you can read this than you know that you were blessed with parents who loved and wanted you, wanted to cuddle you and love you as their child, cared about what happens to you in life and who pray that you will contribute to life and to others. It is very hard to express the importance of understanding the two parts of our existence; the clay and the spirit together make you! All those who were brought up not knowing their earthly parents, could find great comfort in knowing they have Heavenly parents.
The following story expresses that very well:
Who’s Your Daddy?
A seminary professor was vacationing with his wife in Gatlinburg , TN. One morning , they were eating breakfast at a little restaurant, hoping to enjoy a quiet, family meal. While they were waiting
for their food, they noticed a distinguished looking , white-haired man moving from table to table, visiting with the guests. The professor leaned over and whispered to his wife, “I hope he doesn’t come over here.” But sure enough, the man did come over to their table. “Where are you folks from?” he asked in a friendly voice.
“Oklahoma,” they answered. “Great to have you here in Tennessee.” the stranger said. “What do you do for a living?” “I teach at a seminary,” he replied.
“Oh, so you teach preachers how to preach, do you? Well, I’ve got a really great story for you.” And with that, the gentleman pulled up a chair and sat down at the table with the couple. The professor groaned and thought to himself, “Great…Just what I need another preacher story!”
The man started, “See that mountain over there pointing out the restaurant window. Not far from the base of that mountain, there was a boy born to an unwed mother. He had a hard time growing up, because every place he went, he was always asked the same question, ‘Hey boy, Who’s your daddy?’ “Whether he was at school, in the grocery store or drug store, people would ask the same question, ‘Who’s your daddy?’
He would hide at recess and lunchtime from other students. He would avoid going into stores because that question hurt him so bad. “When he was about 12 years old, a new preacher came to his church. He would always go in late and slip out early to avoid hearing the question, ‘Who’s your daddy?’ But one day, the new preacher said the benediction so fast he got caught and had to walk out with the crowd.
“Just about the time he got to the back door, the new preacher, not knowing anything about him, put his hand on his shoulder and asked him, ‘Son, who’s your daddy?’” The whole church got deathly quiet. He could feel every eye in the church looking at him. Now everyone would finally know the answer to the question, ‘Who’s your daddy?’ This new preacher, though, sensed the situation around him and using discernment that only the Holy Spirit could give, said the following to that scared little boy “ ‘Wait a minute!’ he said. ‘I know who you are. I see the family resemblance now. You are a child of God. With that he patted the boy on his shoulder and said, ‘Boy, you’ve got a great inheritance. Go and claim it.’ With that, the boy smiled for the first time in a long time and walked out the door a changed person. He was never the same again.
Whenever anybody asked him, ‘Who’s your Daddy?’ he’d just tell them, ‘I’m a Child of God’.” The distinguished gentleman got up from the table and said, “Isn’t that a great story?” The professor responded that it really was a great story!
As the man turned to leave, he said, “You know, if that new preacher hadn’t told me that I was one of God’s children, I probably never would have amounted to anything!” And he walked away. The seminary professor and his wife were stunned. He called the wait- ress over and asked her, “Do you know who that man was who just left, that was sitting at our table?” The waitress grinned and said, “Of course. Everybody here knows him. That’s Ben Hooper. He’s the former governor of Tennessee!”
There are things that sometimes happen in the lives of family members that may make a son not too proud of his daddy or may make a daddy not too proud of his son. There will always be a relationship that we can be proud of. That is the relationship that we have with our Heavenly Father. I, for one, will always be proud of that relationship.