The pain that crept across his face as he answered my question revealed more than the words.
“No, she’s no better, I’m afraid” he looked down trying hard to hide what couldn’t be hidden and that agony pressed in on my chest till I had to consciously breathe to raise it again.
I wanted to respond with up beat quotes of encouragement, but the masked but evident breaking of this Fathers heart sucked the air from my lungs, what I fought not to say, I know my face was screaming. His instinct to give all to protect his child was internally fighting a place of powerlessness. The pain of his child matched only by his pain in watching her suffer. Though desperate and painful I was struck with the total beauty of this Fathers love, so different from a mothers but equal in its depth and intensity. Precious. A reflection of Abba Father.
Jesus promises us today we will never be orphans. To be Orphaned is to not belong to anyone, there is no one to weep for you, fight for you, rejoice in you the way a parent should.
In other translations it is described as Fatherless. Whatever our earthly circumstances there’s not one of us however who is Fatherless. We each have a Heavenly Father who delights in his children, waiting patiently for them to turn and return home. A Father that takes his daughters hand and invites her to dance, enchanted by her. A Father who embraces his sons, places rings on their fingers and kills fatted calf’s in their name. And yes a Parent who loves enough to correct and steer for the good of their child.
So if you are seeing a world that seems vulnerable and unprotected, apparently Fatherless, don’t fear. We are not orphaned. He IS close. Closer than your breath, and that is the reason for the hope that lives within you. Search your heart for it, that hope that’s taken on flesh by the Spirit, with the Son and the Father alive in you.