John F. Kennedy, Jr.’s Missing Father

What’s missing?

I almost feel cheated and I didn’t really even do anything to deserve it. Like most of the people I’ve talked to, we all seem a little disgusted about our government lately. Forget all the polls and the spin from those polls. I’m not madder at President Obama. I’m not madder at the Republicans. I’m not madder at the Democrats. Quite honestly, I’m equally mad at them all. In the latest government shutdown, I looked at my paycheck and they still took my taxes out. So, basically, I was paying for something I didn’t get.

But you know one of the things I feel most cheated about? It’s something about the size of a stick of butter. In the Washington DC area we have an annual routine we call the Panda Watch. The female Panda has a small window to get pregnant and even when she is pregnant we can’t usually tell until she actually delivers a cub. In most years we are disappointed, but his year she had twins. Unfortunately, one of these died shortly after birth. One survived, though, and it got us all excited. What really makes these births so special are the Panda cams the National Zoo keeps zoomed on them. When we get our first peek the baby Panda look like a little rat and is about the size of a stick of butter. They grow quickly and they change almost daily.

The government, in almost an act of revenge against us, who, did I mention earlier, we didn’t really do anything wrong, not only shutdown all their websites, but they also shut down our beloved Panda cam. When the cameras flipped back on 17 days later, our little Panda no longer looked like a little rat, but instead looked like one of those cute little stuffed animal toys. We missed all that stuff of our little rat turning into a cute little Panda. Yes, I feel cheated.

Although I’m not always fond of newscasters, every once in a while there comes along one that you can tell is very special. To me, Tim Russert, of Meet the Press, was one of those very special people. When he talked, it was like he was sitting in the room and talking directly to you. He got excited about the news and it was contagious. I was very sad when he passed away.

Presidential deaths, also, have a way of making us all very sad. Assassinations and deaths while in office are like stabbing us in the heart with a knife. John F. Kennedy, the last President who was assassinated, is a classic example of this. Although I was very young when he was shot and I can’t really remember it, many people a little older than me can tell you exactly where they were when they heard the news of his being shot. They were heart broken.

Many pictures and videos survive showing John F. Kennedy with his two little kids: Caroline and John Jr.. Caroline is about a year and a half older than me. John Jr. was about a year and a half younger than me. America wept even harder when they saw these two young children near their father’s casket.

When John F. Kennedy Jr. grew up he founded a magazine called George. It was a political magazine that Wikipedia describes as: “The consistent underlying theme was to marry the themes of celebrity and media with the subject of politics in such a way that the general public would find political news and discourse about politics more interesting to read.” When he started the magazine he went on the circuit to promote its arrival. One of those stops landed him on Meet the Press with Tim Russert. JFK Jr. confessed to Tim, off the air, that his memories and all the film clips about his Dad were “intertwined” and it was hard for him to tell them apart. Part of the lead-in segment was a clip of his Dad when he was he was 34 and a young congressman from Massachusetts. JFK was two years younger in the clip than Jr. was in this interview. Tim sensed that Jr. was mesmerized by his young father and seemed to be studying his father’s face. After the interview was over, Jr. asked if he could see the clip again. They set it up in a little room and left him there to view it in private. In Tim Russert’s book Wisdom of Our Fathers, Tim states: “Even if your father is the most famous man in the country, a missing dad is a missing dad, and if he was your dad, a part of you is missing as well.”

The Bible tells the story of an arrogant young boy. His father’s favoritism was like fertilizer that yielded a crop of hatred among his eleven brothers. They despised him so much that they sold him into slavery and they then convinced their father that he had been killed by a wild animal. But Joseph’s trials didn’t end there. He moved up in his master’s house and when he refused his master’s wife’s advances she turned on him. He was thrown in prison. In prison he rose up from the ranks, too. He predicted dreams and when he told one to a couple of guys and they came true, he was told he would be remembered. He was forgotten. Then when the King had a dream that no one could figure out, he was sent for. He corrected predicted a great famine and if not for the King’s wisdom of putting him in charge of getting ready for it, Egypt would not have been ready for it. In fact, Egypt was so ready for it that other nations had to come to Egypt to buy food. His father and brothers were among those people who had to buy food from Egypt. His brothers didn’t recognize him so he tested their remorse. When their remorse proved genuine he revealed himself and was reunited with his father. The lead in verse was about that reunion.

It is obvious from the story that Joseph felt like a very important part of his story was unanswered with the absence of his father. He wept. Something was missing and now it was right there in front of him to view. The past was gone, but he had the now.

All too often people walk through life with that empty feeling. They feel cheated that something is missing from their lives. Frustration fills their hearts as they look for things to fill the void. Nothing seems to work. Promotions, money, cars, vacations and praise provide temporary relief, but it isn’t long before the old pain returns. The answer is probably closer than they think. Maybe what is missing is their father: God. Sometimes we leave Him for something “better.” The problem is there isn’t anything better than the love of God.