We walked in through the door and were greeted with a friendly smile. ‘Name please?’ When we answered, the smile flicked off for a millisecond before turning on again. Something was wrong, but I couldn’t quite figure it out.

It was the day of my son’s music exam. He’d worked really hard and was all psyched up and ready to go. He looked cool, calm and collected; I was a bag of nerves. The time in my calendar was 10:49am, so here we were. It was 10:25, plenty of time to get settled in and warmed up.

We were ushered through to the practice room, a nice space with a honky old electric piano. He did some scales, while I tried to tame the piano so we could practice the beginning and end of each piece. It was all going well until the lady with the smile returned, but this time minus the smile.

‘What time did you say your exam was?’ she asked. ‘It’s just we’ve got you down at 9:49?’ ‘No, that can’t be, it says in my calendar 10:49!’ But it was, I’d made a mistake when I copied it over. We were sent home with the slight hope that we might be able to re-schedule or alternatively we could rebook for November.

I felt so bad. How could I have messed it up? I’m normally so good with times, double-checking and triple-checking to make sure I’ve got it right.  I have to say, it wasn’t my best ‘dad moment’. I looked at my son and all I could do was say ‘sorry’.

When we got home, we were able to re-schedule to an appointment in Lowestoft. It’s a bit of a trek compared to the centre in Peterborough, but at least he can do the exam.

Last month, I wrote how thankful I am that God shows grace when we bring our mistakes to him. I was thankful for that as I drove home that day.

Yet, I was also struck with another teaching of the Bible. The Bible uses the picture of adoption to describe what happens when someone puts their trust in Jesus. That means they join God’s family, they become his son or daughter and he becomes their father.

But what kind of a father? One who is perfect. One who will never let us down or ever make mistakes. A way better father than me.

Praying you all keep safe and well.