For most of my childhood my father was not in my life.  For various reasons, following my parents divorce when I was six years old, I did not see or hear from him for 17 years. When I did, I was married and about to become a mom.  In the years between that, I did have contact with his grandparents until their deaths in the 1970’s. After that, his oldest sister wrote to me occasionally.  Imagine my shock one evening when I had a phone call from a gentleman telling me that he had heard I was about to make him a grandpa. 

He had been in contact with his sister and she informed him I was now married and living in the suburbs of Atlanta.  He too happened to be living in the Atlanta area.  We spoke for a while and planned to meet.  It was a very emotional meeting.  We continued to reconnect through regular visits and phone calls for over a dozen years. My love for baseball, especially the Atlanta Braves, grew even more as he treated me to my first of many MLB games.  We loved attending games with him in the early 1990’s when the Braves were very successful. He was at the hospital with us when our preemie son, Daniel, passed away.  He was here to watch Daniel’s triplet sisters come home and grow into middle school students.  He was here when our younger daughter was born. He was here when we faced quite a few health emergencies.

Just after our youngest son was born, my father decided to move away from Atlanta and contact was lost again.  For years I wondered where he was and how he was doing.  Despite the fact that I had been blessed to have a large extended family that supported my mom as she raised my sisters and I; I still longed to know more about my dad.  After all, half my genes came from him. The years following his move away from Atlanta, I missed talking about family history with him.  I missed discussing the Braves games with him.  I missed hearing his booming radio voice.  

On Father’s Day 14 years after he moved away, we attended the Braves game.  All throughout the game I remembered our many days at the games together.  The drive home had me reminiscing quite a bit about our relationship and I was concerned for him.  As we exited the interstate near our home, the DJ on the Christian radio station we listened to began talking about Father’s Day.  He took a moment to speak specifically to those who might be estranged from their fathers.  He then prayed for those who had no contact with their father.  Following the prayer, he played the song “7 x 70” by Chris August. (A song about forgiveness.) Tears began to fall down my face.  

Once back at home, I quickly searched the internet for my dad’s name.  I found him listed as an employee at a radio station along with his work email.  I sent him an email and he did respond in time.  His new location was only a couple hours from the location my son and I would soon be visiting for a church youth trip.  He drove over and we met for dinner one night.  Over time, the relationship was reconnected and we have been able to see each other periodically and once again attend a few Braves games together over the years.  

I am thankful for our renewed relationship.  While neither of us is perfect, we are father and daughter, and that connection is important to me.  I am thankful to that DJ on The Joy FM that prompted me to contact my dad. God used him to urge me into working to heal our relationship.  Maybe there is someone you know that needs encouragement to extend a hand to another. Maybe you have a broken relationship that needs to be reconnected. Either way, I hope God directs you clearly in what to do, just as he did for me.

“Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.” 1 Thessalonians 5:11

https://youtu.be/I0iY-R6VTAE. (7X70 by Chris August)