Daddy’s Devotional

Day 24 Here For You I think in all of the years of my sisters and I playing high school and college basketball, my parents missed less games than we have fingers. Unless it was a cross-country game, my parents went to every game. I’ll never forget, though, there was one game in college that, as I look back, actually helped shape the relationship with my Heavenly Father because of what my dad did for me. A little about my parents - they are the absolute, most generous people on planet Earth. They give and give and give, and when they need something for themselves, they refuse and give to their kids even more. And the most precious gift? The gift of time. They never wanted to miss opportunities with us. I was going through a rough stretch in college basketball, not playing a lot, and playing poorly when I did play. I was struggling. Most of our games were on the east coast and one of our games was in Massachusetts during a horrific snow storm. There were maybe a few fans at most because most people either assumed the game was cancelled or didn’t want to risk their lives getting to the gym, it was that bad. And as we were warming up, there was one very large man in the crowd there to watch. My dad. He traveled about seven hours one way, through a treacherous snow storm to come watch. As the game progressed, I got in a few times, and sure enough, I played awful. We lost, and after the game, I walked up to my dad and just started crying. I apologized to him for playing so badly after he had gone through so much to get there and what he said in response to my disappointment and emotion was so profound that I’ll never forget it. He said, “I didn’t come here to watch you perform, I came here to see you.” It’s hard for me not to tear up, even when telling the story, because those words carry such a profound meaning. Just like my father, our Heavenly Father doesn’t want our performance, He wants our hearts. Jesus felt this way in today’s Scripture, when after performing all sorts of miracles, there were people who wanted to see Him do the miraculous not because they wanted to know HIM, but because they wanted to witness and be entertained by His performance. You see, Jesus didn’t travel all the way from Heaven to watch you perform, He came here for you. John 4:48 - “Unless you people see signs and wonders,” Jesus told him, “you will never believe.”