Chapter 2 The Super Star

Chapter 2 The Superstar

I never met a more charismatic person than my own father.  I don’t know what God put in him to make him like that or even why.  It was hard growing up with that walking around the living room. Don’t get me wrong, I think I am charismatic too; but I have never been in a room with my father where he did not consume the gravity of it. When I played basketball in front of thousands of people, he would never sit in the same place, often choosing to stand on the balcony to avoid the cascade of people wanting to talk to him.  He just wanted to focus on watching me play. However, I could always find him.  Anyone could.  My dad is six foot seven with dark skin and a thick mustache.  He always looked like he could be a movie star.  My friends called him Apollo Creed when I was in high school.  He was (and is- LOL) better looking than Billy Dee Williams.  (I might be showing my age by listing these two men, but you are showing your age if you know who I am talking about!) He didn’t lift weights but he has always been active in sports in his adulthood, so it gave him a brawny muscular frame.  I am overjoyed I look just like him.  He always carried himself proudly. He always dressed like royalty even when cutting the grass.  He took pride even in his tennis outfits.  Many feared him as soon as they saw him.  I have seen him make grown men cry just by the steeliness of his gaze (that is another Dad story that I will share). I have never seen him unconfident.  Never nervous.  Never ashamed. Nevertheless, he was so unconcerned with the opinions around him, there were no limits to how seductive he could be to charm anyone’s socks off.  Not that this gift bypassed me and my brother.  We have some of it.  My oldest son Jacob, my Dad’s first grandson, Jacob; seemed to inherit most of it.  But every room I have seen my Dad walk into, his presence swallowed that room. 

 As I wrote before, this was a cross my brother and I had to bear growing up.  I could play basketball in front of thousands without an issue, but he is the only one who could make me feel nervous.  He is the only one I cannot defeat in an argument or a debate. He is the only man on earth, even now, I fear. Even though he is seventy-four, I don’t know if I can take him down.  He still thinks he can beat me playing one on one in basketball.  I have never seen him afraid.  I have seen him cry once, at his mother’s funeral.  I seen him win more fights without throwing a punch, just by the power of his aura. 

 However, when that man hugs me, it is like hugging the sun.  When he tells me how proud he is of me, it sounds as if a colossal river is reciting those words.  When he tells me if me or my kids are threatened in any way, he is on his way to defend me or avenge me (that’s a direct quote). I believe it.  Even now, I find security in it.

 So, I find this to be a reflection of God as a Father.  God needs to be God.  He needs to be omnipotent.  He needs to be holy.  He needs to have a face that when you look into it, means death.  He needs to be this for all of his children because when that same God gently speaks to our spirits, it feels overwhelmingly supernatural and beautiful.  When that same God gets on His hands and knees to wash our feet it shows how much He values us.  When that same God gave up His son for me, to pay for every mistake I have ever made, every act of evil I have ever done, and every moment of apostacy I have committed: It shows me the depths of His love and His willingness to prove it.  And because He is God and willing to humble Himself to love me, how can I not give Him my love too?

My dad gave an amazing speech when I was inducted into the hall of fame of my college for basketball.  I wish someone taped it. But I did get to tape a little bit when he spoke at his own Dad’s funeral, my grandfather.  I could easily see where I got my speaking skill from.  He spoke, during one of the hardest days of his life, without an outline or practice, to a room of five hundred people.  Eloquent, articulate and fearless, he evinced the glory of his own earthly Dad.  He spoke for less than five minutes, but I was there, and I saw it.  He swallowed the entire room.  Then afterwards, that very same powerful man who dominated, yet again, for the thousandth time, hugged me and my brother and told us how much he loved us. My mighty and powerful dad submitting to the love and affection he has for his two boys.  I often watch this video of him speaking because it is one of the best moments of my life.  I am proud to be my Dad’s son; to be created in his image.  I am grateful that I came from such a powerful man because when humbles himself to love me, I know it is truly love.  And that is gospel.  It is a shadow of how My Heavenly Father, crowned with omnipotence, humbles and submits Himself to love me, too. 

 1 John 3:1-2

3 See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. ² Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears,^[a] we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.