Father's wise to make the crossing (7)
I believe the answer is:
passage
'the crossing' is the definition.
(act of crossing or travelling through)
'father's wise' is the wordplay.
'father's' becomes 'pa's' (pa can mean dad or father).
'wise' becomes 'sage' (similar in meaning).
'pas'+'sage'='PASSAGE'
'to make' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for passage that I've seen before include "Way through; part of text" , "Literary extract" , "Section of text; journey" , "Section of musical or literary work" , "Piece of text or music" .)