Hello, I’m Nick Park and I’m the overseer of the Church of God in Ireland. When I was growing up, I was four years old and I was one of four boys in our family. My father decided to take my two elder brothers camping, but I was deemed too young to go with them. So while they were packing up the car, I sneaked into the boot of the car and hid underneath the tent poles and so they set off a long drive for several hours with me in the back of the car, Nobody knew I was there. When we arrived at the campsite, then my father discovered me in the back of the car and, having given me a good beating, basically decided he wasn’t prepared to drive all the way home with me. So I had to stay for the camping trip, which I was perfectly happy about. I considered that well worth a beating.

That night we were lying in the tent and we had we had candles to see by. My father had told us very seriously that we had to blow the candles out before we went to sleep. Well, being the youngest, I was the first one to go to sleep. I remember waking up in the middle of the night and I had a cough. I kept coughing ,and I couldn’t stop coughing and I remember thinking, “Man, this is a terrible cough I just can’t stop coughing.”

It seemed like quite a long time that I was just coughing and coughing, and couldn’t figure out why I couldn’t stop coughing in my sleep. Next thing, I felt somebody picking me up and carrying me away, and then the next thing I remember is I was outside and I was watching a tent on fire and realized it was the tent where we had all been sleeping.

One of my elder brothers had forgotten to blow out the candle, and somebody had turned over in their sleep and kicked the candle, and the whole tent had caught fire as a result. The reason I couldn’t stop coughing was because of the smoke. If my father hadn’t run in and rescued me, I would have died in that fire.

Sometimes I look back and realize that all the years I’ve had since then, everything I’ve been able to do and enjoy, and everything I’ve been able to be for the Lord, has been a blessing and a gift above and beyond what could have been taken from me at a very young age.

When I was 18 years old, I was in a mess of alcohol and drug addiction. My Heavenly Father reached out to me at a time when I was in a spiritual equivalent of coughing and choking on that smoke and not realizing how serious things were. I knew my life was a mess, but I didn’t realize how much of a mess. My Heavenly Father rescued me from the flames, this time from the flames of hell, and I will be eternally grateful.

I will be grateful to my father for rescuing me from the physical flames of that tent when I was just a very young child, but I’m so grateful to my Heavenly Father for rescuing me from the flames of eternal punishment, which I would have richly deserved, yet by his grace he reached out to me. I truly believe that I am a brand plucked from the burning.

You know ,one of the tasks and one of the roles of a father is to protect their children. Our Heavenly Father is a protector on this Father’s Day. You know, my own father was not a perfect father. He was he was quite rough with us as boys, and that was not uncommon in that day and age. Looking back, it probably would have got him arrested today if anyone treated a child the way that we were treated, but one thing I know is this: my father saved my life at a time of great danger.

And our Heavenly Father is a God who rescues us when we need rescuing, that is what a father does. So, irrespective of how good or how bad your physical father was, irrespective of whether your memories of your physical father are good or bad, I would encourage you today to give grateful thanks to our Heavenly Father. He’s the perfect father who loves us, who watches over us, and reaches out and rescues us at our great times of need.

May God help us always to be grateful to him for being our Father God, and for showing us a father’s love. May God bless you in Jesus’ name.