The Lodestar

Our experience of parents varies. Some grew up as orphans from birth or later in their lives. Besides those who lost their parents to death, there are many whose parents abandoned them. Some had to live away from their poor parents in charitable homes where they were cared for. Some were rich enough, but to seek a better education, they had to move to boarding, missing the regular active presence of their parents for most of their lives.

However, though our experience of parents is uneven, the reality of God the Father is constant and even. The Lord is "father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation" (Psalm 68:5). He is the father to orphans and those who did not have adequate parental experience for any reason.

Though God’s fatherhood is a universal truth applicable to all born into this world, those in Christ have the unique privilege of being God’s sons and daughters. “For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’” (Rom 8:15).

Here is the twist! While the Lord is the father to the fatherless, he entrusts his followers, who have become his children through Jesus Christ, with the responsibility of caring for orphans on his behalf. The Old Testament command, “Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute” (Psalm 82:3), also echoes in the New Testament. Apostle James exhorted his congregations that the measure of genuine spirituality is serving the poor and the orphans. “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world” (James 1:27).

Here is the assurance to hang on. Whatever our age or location, the Lord is our caring Father. He mediates his fatherly care to the world through those who have become his children through their faith in Jesus Christ. The call is to immerse ourselves in the Lord's fatherly care and embrace the needy with the same love.

If you have tasted the Father’s love, let it flow through you. Look around—there are children, youth, and even adults who long to know that same care. Ask the Lord to show you one way this week to reflect his fatherly heart—through prayer, mentoring, giving, or opening your home. When we extend his compassion, the world glimpses the face of our Heavenly Father.

(To receive these devotionals daily on WhatsApp, click here.)