One Father’s Sin and a Daughter’s Healing Response
Written by Rev. Dr .Scott Paczkowski
“Behold, I will bring to it health and healing, and I will heal them and reveal to them abundance of prosperity and security. ”
A couple of weeks ago, the Washington Post reported an article entitled, “A man dumped 80,000 pennies on the lawn for his last child-support payment. His daughter paid it forward.” It was just before a young woman’s eighteenth birthday. Her estranged father dumped a trailer full of pennies on her mother’s lawn in a sarcastic celebration of his final requirement. There are so many questions. Did he realize the horrific statement of callous abandonment he was imparting on his biological daughter? Etc.
After the sick penny drop shock wore off, the man’s biological daughter had the mature mental health necessary to respond with more integrity than her biological father could even envision on his best day. While “devastated by her dad’s display,” the eighteen-year-old and her mother decided to gather the pennies and “donate the $800 in coins to a domestic abuse center.” Since this sad, yet renewing, story broke, “the shelter says it has seen a spike of more than $5000.00 in donations, with some people citing the family as a reason for their gifts.”
Sadly, many of us who have emotionally immature biological fathers have stories this bad and worse. No one would have blamed this eighteen-year-old for bitterly hating her father for the rest of her life. Hate would not have hurt him nearly as much as it would have hurt her. This teenager used her despairing moment to make a healing statement and bring renewal from her pain.
Today, pray for those who have been deeply hurt by a cruel and immature parent. Rather than allow hatred to revictimize, ask the Holy Spirit to bring the Divine wisdom necessary to bring hope and healing to the victimizer and the survivor. As hard as it is sometimes, may we never forget to pray for this pathetic father and other spiritually hollow individuals who hurt others. Bring your Divine light to shine on their cruelty so emotional hurt can be confessed, and restoration of the sin-sick-soul can be healed. Give us all the humility to take our anger and turn it into acts of compassion.
