The Man He Sees In Me

I stumbled across this song after a podcast by Shane Todd in which he talked about the album "Fathers and Sons" by Luke Combs. I have to confess that I had heard about Luke Combs somewhere in the ether but I never really got him, until I listened to this song and it nearly broke me. I have to confess that whilst listening to it I did have a little cry.

The basic premise of the song, as I understood it anyway, is trying to be the man that your son sees in you, the man who scares the monsters out of the closet in his room, the man who hung the moon but there is a sense of sadness in it because of the realisation that we will never be the man he sees in me.

As the father of five boys this is the question that sometimes crosses my mind, who is the man they see in me? Sometimes the man they see in me is kind, generous, loving, caring but more often than I would care to admit the man they see in me is proud, arrogant, angry, selfish and lives for my own comfort and good.

The bible talks about "the fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children's teeth are set on edge" and there are times in my life when I like the taste of sour grapes, times in my life when sin reigns and the consequence of that can easily be passed on to my children, thats the man that they see in me, the sinner, the lover of self.

Yet in isolation this would drive us to despair wouldn't it? If the salvation of our children depended on my example as a father then all would be lost because I could never cope with that pressure and I could never set an example that would save them. Rather what I hope for my boys (and girl) is that they learn to look beyond their earthly father, look beyond his flaws and instead they look to their heavenly father.

Their heavenly father who will never let them down, their heavenly father who sent his only son to die for their sin, their heavenly father who loves them and cares for them. The song finishes with the author looking at his grandson riding on his sons knee and his prayer that his son would be the man he saw in him for all those years. I don't want my children to grow up to be like me, I want them to be better, to be more Godly, I don't want them to grow up to be the man they see in me I want them to grow up to be the man they see in Jesus.

You can listen to the song here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNRW8en2pp8