Giants!

"The Nephilim were on the earth in those days-and also afterwards...They were the heroes of old, men of renown." Gen 6:4

My Dad is a giant! Not a literal giant, though I do come from a tall family. He does stand at a slender 6 foot 1, a height it took me until the 9th grade to surpass. As a small child though, my dad seemed impossibly big.

I can’t say I remember what it felt like having him hold me as an infant, but having held my own sons in my arms, I can certainly imagine it. The warmth, tenderness, and the security which I consciously try to make myself convey (I’m not the most “emotionally in-tune” of guys), would have flowed naturally from my dad. He has a heart of compassion, much more so than I do, and a seemingly inexhaustible supply of patience (also much more than I).

One of my favorite games when I was a little older was having my dad throw me in the pool. My best friend had a pool which we would all go swimming in as a family; rather we kids would float around on tubes while my dad would swim around under water. Suddenly, you would feel him grab hold of the tube and next thing you know you were being flung through the air, tube and all, and come crashing down clear across the pool. FUN!

Older still, there was a particular incident in which I caused so much trouble that my dad, at a loss for what else to do most likely, picked me up by the shirt with one hand and planted me bodily against the wall. With arm sinews rippling and neck veins throbbing, in that moment, though I was older and bigger, he was again a giant.

My dad’s enormity lies in more than just his slightly above average height and lean athletic build however. It lies in the impact he has on his family, surroundings, and everything that comes into contact with him. Though I surpassed him long ago in the height department, my stature still seems small in relation. Through his life and actions, he has taught me that a man is more than the sum of his physical parts. As I reflect on that lesson, I am grateful to have a giant for a dad.

"We saw the Nephilim there... We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them." Num 13:33