Abandonment seems to be a theme this year. I have heard stories of students who were abandoned by their fathers, their mothers, or both when they were children. And some others feel abandoned by unengaged parents or a parent who died too soon.
God created us to be raised by two parents who love us, but, in a fallen world, sometimes that is not the reality we experience. While growing up, I never heard my parents say to me, “I love you,” nor did I ever hear them say it to one another. I wasn’t abandoned in the literal sense, but the feelings were there. I longed to be valued and to be a part of a family unit whose members cared for one another---to hear it and to feel it.
It wasn’t until my late teens, when I decided to follow Jesus, that I began to experience a sense of family. And it didn’t come from my biological family, but rather my spiritual family—my brothers and sisters in the Lord. I felt loved and valued in a way in which I had never before experienced. God had placed this lonely young man into a family. And the love I received was just what I needed.
I see the same thing happening today in our ministry. Students whose home lives are dysfunctional, who have been or feel abandoned are finding love and acceptance from a new family with the Lord as its Head. They have a sense of belonging that has been missing.
This is how God is a father to the fatherless. He places the lonely, the abandoned, in His family. His sons and daughters then embrace their new siblings with the same love they themselves have experienced from their Father.
Today, know that regardless of the state of your biological family, in the Lord you always have a Father and a family. You never have to feel alone or unloved. The door is open and your Father and siblings are welcoming you to come in.
© Jim Musser 2015
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