A Faithful Man Who Can Find?

When I was born my dad had already joined the Iraqi army so I really didn’t see him much. He actually joined the army one year after he got married at the age of twenty five and left the army in his late thirty’s. Back home men are forced to join the army; they fought and died for a cause they didn’t believe in, against a neighboring country they did not consider an enemy, in support of a president they did not elect. My dad had a vacation of around seven days every forty five days, so when he came home he didn’t want to shave because in the army they are forced to wake up at 5 am and shave every morning, so he just wanted a break from it!

Needless to say I didn’t know who my dad was! I actually didn’t know what the word “Dad” meant! I remember thinking to myself “Who is this man and why does he come visit us every once in a while!” I even remember asking my older sister who this man was, and she answered that he was our dad! But that didn’t help me because I didn’t know what he was there for! I mean, my mom I understood, but who is he! Even though he loved me, told me stories, bought me gifts and hugged me, that didn’t help, seeing him few days on an average of a month and a half was simply not enough (two days are usually lost for transportation to the battlefield.) I sometimes thought he was the man who came to fix the house! Because whenever he came he would start changing light bulbs, cut trees, do carpentry work and fix this and fix that! So for the first 6 years of my life I had no idea what a dad was for!

Many claim to have unfailing love,  but a faithful person who can find? Proverbs 20:6

A year after that war stopped our president started another war in 1990, which again my dad was enlisted to fight in. To make a long story short, my first real recollections of him was around the age of twelve. It was actually right after the Gulf War and he had just come home and we hadn’t seen him in months, and I was sitting on the stairs that lead to the roof building some kind of toy or device and I was whistling some classical music when this man (my dad) in military uniform and gear came in. He was very weary and tired, and he was carrying more stuff and bags on his back than I had ever seen him carry and his face was expressionless. That was pretty much the first time I took a good look at my dad’s face. As kids, especially teenagers, we rarely spend time getting to know our parents, and this sometimes continues into adulthood, we simply never take the time to get to know them. Not even to know what they really look like: what eye color do they have, how handsome they are, how beautiful they look when they smile, or how sad they look even when they try to hide it.

My dad had grown up as a devote “Christian” in his denomination, and you can see that in the way he acted as a grown man. Mind you, he was not your Biblical example of how to follow Jesus, and so on, but he held some values until today I haven’t seen many hold. One of those values is being honest, and trustful. I have not seen a man trusted as much as my father. Strangers would trust property with him, because they knew that if they came after many years to claim he would still have it ready for them sound and safe. This impressed me much especially as a young man growing up looking for role models.

Actually Christians are very much trusted back home because my home country is divided by race, religion, and you name it—and everybody was against everybody! Even our president’s staff, like his cooks, house takers, cars mechanics, even engineers were mainly Christians because he knew they wouldn’t try to assassinate him. I am not even talking about people who accepted Jesus in their lives or were obeying Him…I am talking about people who have the New Testament as their Holy Book and believed in it! That can tell you how powerful God’s Word is that even applying a principle or two like love your enemies and submit to authority figures can make such a powerful testimony in our world.

The righteous lead blameless lives; blessed are their children after them. Proverbs 20:7