The bitterness over broken relationships with dads reveals the need for intimacy with a father. There is a desire in all of us to love and be loved by our father. And our Father. The desire to connect with our father is a God-given desire and a reflection of our longing for God, the ultimate and perfect Father. Just as the absence of an earthly father creates a void, the absence of God leaves people empty. Augustine once wrote in his Confessions, “The thought of you [God] stirs man so deeply that he