The God we know through Jesus is both like and unlike earthly parents. Like in the way earthly, imperfect parents approximate the divine un-give-up-able love. Unlike in the way earthly parents often fall short. Yet with our fallible parents, we can exquisitely experience the un-stop-able love of God operating through them.

In FIRST DADS: PARENTING AND POLITICS FROM GEORGE WASHINGTON TO BARACK OBAMA, Joshua Kendall explores connections between how presidents ‘papa’ and govern. He suggests five types of First Dad parenting styles.

PREOCCUPIED: Most prevalent are presidents who are consumed with their awesome responsibilities. Though they care, they are often disconnected. Kendall puts FDR, LBJ, Carter, Nixon, and Reagan in this group.

PLAYFUL: Grant, Theodore Roosevelt, and George W. Bush are among the POTUS’s who could unwind with their kids, sometimes had a hard time saying no to their whims and wishes.

DOUBLE-DEALING DADS: Varying qualities of relationships with their official offspring, several presidents had affairs, some illegitimate children. Among them: Jefferson, Tyler, Cleveland, Harding, Kennedy, and Clinton.

TIGER DADS: Some presidential pops showed their love by being demanding, at times hyper-critical: John Adams with his president son John Quincy Adams and him with his son. Also, most notable, Eisenhower.

GRIEF STRICKEN: We sort of expect loss of parents, spouse and siblings, but none bargain for the loss of a child. Several presidents lived and led conditioned by their grief for a lost child. Lincoln, McKinley, Coolidge, and George H. W. Bush.

NURTURERS: In between laissez-faire and authoritarian dads, Kendall places intentional fathers. They work to be involved but not overbearing in their children’s lives. Among these: Washington, Rutherford Hayes (when’s the last time you thought about ole Rutherford?), Truman, and Obama (he suppers with his family five nights a week). Certainly, none of these categories fully contain the impact of the double-challenge of dad-hood and president-hood.

My last earthly conversation with my dad was when he was 48; I, 24. No day has passed without thinking of him, often with forehead whack, ‘oh, now I get it’ moments. We did get to enjoy several wonderful years of adult friendship. I was blessed by granddad Pawpaw and Uncle Bob(by) who were magnificent stand-in dads.

I learned and Communion-of-Saints continue to learn from my dad...

+ Money is seldom in surplus. My dad was a hard worker and master money stretcher. Taught me to pay bills on time and fiercely guard good credit.

+ My dad’s great dexterity with tools leapfrogged over me and landed on our oldest son. Both: happy campers in their tool-full hobby shop garages.

+ In sales all his life, my dad was quite a conversationalist, story teller, and funny. He emphasized that ‘sales’ were based on honest relationships and a good product. There is a connection with being a minister, don’t you think?

+ My parents had a crazy love: a crazy in love, drive each other crazy, relationship. In its own way it was a testimony that real love is always a both/and ‘because of’ and ‘in spite of’ deal.

Maybe the likeness and unlike-ness of divine and human love merge after all. For God so loved the world…because of…and in spite of…indeed.