You are NOT the Father
I was playing some chess in a local Laundromat earlier this afternoon and overheard a talk-show of Jerry Springer ilk screaming on and on about something, so I spent a few minutes listening in.
Apparently, the show’s (Maury) episode was entitled, “Are you the Father?” and was showcasing several individuals who were seeking to know the truth about themselves or their child through DNA testing.
One such lady had been on this show 7 previous times, each time proposing a different suspect as father of her young boy. They showed the previous clips of each of the seven men as Maury read from the DNA results, “You are NOT the father” over and over again. Each and every time, the man would jump up in joy, screaming and jumping up and down – thrilled with the freedom that comes from not being tied to a child. The mother was a different story, almost each time, she would crumple over in the seat, crying or run off the stage screaming in despair. I was honestly appalled on multiple fronts – the woman’s promiscuity, the men’s irresponsibility and disregard for the woman’s well-being, the audience’s cheering and jeering real life tragedy, and worst of all, Maury and his production staff, for “inventing new kinds of evil all the time”.
Who will take the case for the unwed mother? For the fatherless child? Who will see past the glitz of television to feel the pain so intertwined with every fabric of our lives? I am hungry for relationships with people I can bring hope to. I am on the brink of the church’s walls – I’m ready to meet the lost face to face. How can I “be the Father”, the heavenly Father in some small way this week?
