Yesterday I had to remind myself that my father is no longer alive on this earth. I had an urge to pick up my phone and call him; to tell him I love him and ask his advice on something I’m struggling with. I just wanted to hear his voice.

No one sounds like he did when they hear it’s me on the other end. Oh, some ask how I’m doing, very few listen if I elaborate, and no one is as happy to hear my voice as my father was.

There was something about his voice, too, something warm in that Oklahoma twang that soothed my soul. It was a safe voice, an accepting voice. There was never any condemnation in his tone—even when he corrected me. His was the voice of unconditional love.

It took many years for me to define love; decades went by before I stopped pining for a flimsy greeting card version. All those years wasted on procuring a prince, never realizing the treasure I sought resides solely in someone I can’t call on a telephone.

Daddy was gone six months before I found that one true love. Actually, I found it as a child but I never understood it. Just as a child cannot fathom the vastness of a parent’s love, I had no clue that all I desire, all I hope for, everything I want or will ever want is embodied in my Maker.

Now it’s his voice that soothes my soul, far more than my Daddy’s voice ever could. Oh, I don’t hear him the way I once heard my Dad, but I don’t have to because I trust his word. I believe he loves me unconditionally and that is enough.

I can no more explain my relationship with God, with his son, Jesus Christ and his Holy Spirit than I can explain how the earth keeps spinning, why winter gives way to spring and how a child is knit together in her mother’s womb.

Still, he is more real than any human I’ve ever seen, touched or heard. He knows me inside and out; his presence is my favorite place, and I don’t ever want to be away from him.

This Father’s Day, I honor both of my fathers, the one whose voice once soothed my aching soul and the one whose voice charges my life blood with infinite power, indescribable passion and incomparable purpose.

For everything comes from him and exists by his power and is intended for his glory. All glory to him forever! Amen.  (Romans 11:36 NLT)