There Are No Fatherless Christians.
I saw my father for the first time when I was 19. Strangely, he was also 19 at the time. It wasn’t how I’d imagined seeing him for the first time–he didn’t react when I held him, he didn’t look back at me when I looked at him, he wasn’t trembling like I was, he wasn’t curious about me like I was about him, and he didn’t care about me like I cared about him. The fact is, I turned my eyes away from him after just a few seconds because I’d seen all I could stand to see. It all happened so fast...
I handed the picture of my father back to my mother, and I walked away before she could see me in tears. Just as he’d been my entire life, he was still an inanimate object, an image of a father rather than an actual participant in my life.
I’ve never met my father in person–I only saw him that one time in a picture. He abandoned my mom and me before I was even born. I don’t know if he’s alive or dead, and if he’s still alive, I don’t think he cares if I’m alive or dead. However, that doesn’t mean I’m fatherless. I may not have a father on earth, but I have a true father in heaven.
The Bible says God’s a “father of the fatherless” (Psalm 68:5). That means that when a fatherless sinner repents and believes in Jesus, God adopts that person as his child. Therefore, God blesses that Christian with everything a person needs from their father.
Likewise, when I became a Christian, I developed a relationship with my true heavenly father. Like good fathers, he made a sacrifice by sending his divine son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross for me. Like good fathers, he offered me protection by giving me the Holy Spirit to protect me from temptation and sin. Like good fathers, he gave and continues to give me advice through the Bible. Like good fathers, he listens to my questions and struggles by giving me access to pray to him at any time.
Before becoming a Christian, I was a high school dropout, aimless and hopeless. However, becoming a child of God motivated me to return to school for an education and a career that would honor my father in heaven. It also encouraged me to overcome my fears by pursuing finding a wife and having a family. By the grace of God, I’m now a married man and the father of two boys who see me daily and know me.
As with my biological father, I haven’t met my spiritual adoptive father face to face yet, but I know I'll meet him in heaven one day. God promises me, just as he promised Joshua in the Old Testament, that he’ll never leave me nor forsake me (Joshua 1:5). His son, Jesus Christ, who’s part of him, has defeated death, so he won’t die or leave me. He’s sinless, so he’ll never become evil or forsake me. God will never ever leave nor forsake his adopted children.
The man who’s naturally my father decided that he didn’t want to be my father at all, but the God who’s supernaturally my adoptive father, chose to be my true father forever. My biological father decided that he didn’t want to be my father before I was even born, but God became my true adoptive father when I was born again into his spiritual family. As a result, my life has become so much better than I’d ever imagined.
There simply are no fatherless Christians. This is why hearing about the gospel, the good news, plays a central role at Rewritten. We understand that we cannot help to bring healing and restoration to fatherless children if we don’t share with them the good news that they can be adopted by a perfect and everlasting father in heaven by receiving the gift of his salvation given to us through his son, Jesus Christ.
*ReWritten contributor, Samuel Sey is a writer and blogger. To learn more about Samuel you can visit: www.SlowToWrite.com