Our feedjit tool at the bottom of the page is so handy, it shows what people are putting into search engines to look for. Today, being Father's Day, everyone is looking for Scripture on fatherless. My husband & I are in our late 40's and we are fatherless now.
When Father God sent out God Jesus, He knew, in physical presence, Jesus would be without Him. God looked at the men of the earth and fulfilled His promise to David, Jesus would be part of David's line. In God's own path and plan.
Jesus did not arrive easily on earth with two parents. Immediately we understand God is acting not as a fable, but as tangled as life can become. The feedjit tool doesn't say looking for a father scripture as much as it says fatherless scripture. No where in Scripture do we learn what Joseph's father was like. We know Joseph's father's name due to the genealogy of the gospels, but not his character.
Which neatly brings us to our point to remember for today.
Job 29:11
When the ear heard, it called me blessed, and when the eye saw, it approved, because I delivered the poor who cried for help, and the fatherless who had none to help him.
I've been fatherless since I was 18, my sophomore year in college. The year the dad I loved so much, who read the stories, made fun food, made friends and a comfortable living - made an alcoholic's decision - to hide from his children and spouse while he filed for divorce. My beloved dad didn't die until I was 30, but I was fatherless. Yes, God has blessed me with the blessings He does provide for the fatherless. Today I have a husband who dearly loves me. Good sons. And family home we love. The blessings of Church family.
At some point, we quit being fatherless. It stops. God fills the hole in our heart. I forgave my dad I love so much. He will be one of the first faces I look for when I enter the gates of Heaven. I am no longer, thanks to God's promises and faithfulness, an orphan child. I am loved as a Child of God. Instead, God has made my heart and my hands able to give the compassion He gave to me - to give to others. Now if you have had this sadness in life from a divorce or a recent parental death, you might want to know, how much does it stop. Pretty completely. Sure, we all have a tender moment remembering in love our loved ones. And we have a petal to the metal moment when we relate past relationship (parent/child) failure to current events in our lives.
I do have people in my life who want to mourn and to ponder their dad's death or even the divorce. I listen to people mourn friends who have been dead for years. It takes some patience on my part to hear them re-hash things emotionally. I know grief, I've lost a daughter. I understand grief does return from time to time. Life does move on. The dead in Jesus Christ are alive today in paradise.
How do we help life move on? Forgive. Love them. Look forward to them again.
For now - be the one who helps others. Comfort the widow. Comfort the divorced. Be like the people who helped move us physically. Who hung out with us when we were as much fun as wet matches.
At some point - we are no longer the child - we become the helper, the parent, the grandparent.
Are you fatherless too? Build bridges. Make a path. Help out. If you know you've been helped, why wouldn't you want to do this. Like Joseph, the man God chose to raise Jesus. The Gospels record Joseph was such a Father - the tiny town of Bethlehem and the surrounding communities didn't see a blended family - they saw Joseph and Jesus looked like each other. High praise. Imagine the Bible recording that you were so much like God there was not a seam.
Matthew 13:55-56
Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? And are not all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?”
What about those in need? Look for the blessings God gives daily. Count them in a daily journal.
Psalm 68:19
Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears us up; God is our salvation. Selah
Blessed are You, Father God. You are our Father and the Light of the world now and the world to come. Alleluia in Jesus. Amen.
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