Reinhold Niebuhr was one of the most respected theologians of the twentieth century. He wrote the famous prayer associated with Alcoholics Anonymous: God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, Courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference. When Niebuhr was 21 years old, his father died. Two months later, the young man spoke in the pulpit his father used to occupy. This is what he said: As a child I once spent a day with my grandmother. Toward evening a severe storm began. "Now how will you get home, child?" she asked. But then my father came to fetch me. He had a big blue coat and as we left he said, "Come under here." I slipped under the coat, grabbed his hand, and off we went. I couldn’t see anything as we splashed through puddles and mire. I heard the rain and the thunder and seized my father’s hand and held it tightly. I would have been a fool if I had complained that it was dark around me. After all, it was my father’s coat, protecting me from the weather, that made it dark. Father saw the path; I knew that … and when the coat parted, we were home! Father had brought me home…. So it is with our Heavenly Father. If only we trust him, he holds our hand, takes us under his wings and leads us through storm and tempest.
Mark Stibbe
From the book “The Father You've Been Waiting For: Portrait of a Perfect Dad”