My
earthly father has never uttered the words “I love you” to me.
My
earthly father physically, emotionally, and verbally abused me for 18 years of
my life.
I
have not spoken to my earthly father since December of 2007.
During Training Camp we had a speaker that spoke
on grieving and hurts in our life.
There was a
grieving exercise he encouraged us to do in order to forgive all of our past
hurts.
I was sitting there in my seat like “Well, I have already done that exercise so
what do you have in store for me now Papa.”
The speaker
stated that no matter what our relationship with our earthly father looks like,
our heavenly father loves us so much.
Here I am saying “Okay, sure I have heard that before too…”
I could
sense that God wanted more from me, but I was not sure what.
I look around the room that was filled with so
many World Racers, past and future, and I saw our Daddy doing some work in each
of them. For the next hour I poured out my heart into my family members through
prayer.
Then, I sat down and I cried.
Jesus told me
it was my time for Him to speak to me.
I sat there and God was telling me that He had a
hug waiting for me.
My heavenly
father wanted to hug me!
I looked up and I saw our “squad dad” Bruce
Dawson.
I got out of my seat and started to walk towards
him.
He started to walk away from me, but I tugged on
his shirt.
He hugged me and I whispered into his ears, “My earthly father has never loved me and I’m
so thankful that we have you as our squad dad.”
As soon as I finished telling Dad Dawson that, Papa froze my hands.
Like legit,
cannot feel, cannot do anything froze my hands.
PAPA was reaching out to me.
PAPA was reaching for my hands.
PAPA was telling me He has a
hold of me.
PAPA was telling me that He
loves me.
PAPA was telling me that this
is the hug I had been waiting so long for.
MY
DADDY HUGGED ME!
I cannot even express to you how much I have
awaited a hug from an earthly father.
Not only did I get a hug from my squad dad, but my
Heavenly father embraced me at the same time.
No matter the hurt and pain you have endured here
on earth, Papa
is looking down on you smiling at you for the work that you have done.
No matter the abuse you have been through, Papa is embracing you letting
you know that there is no way He would ever hurt you.
No matter what your relationship with your earthly
father looks like, Papa
loves you so much more.
