A Father to the Fatherless
“And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.” Galatians 4:6-7
In March of 2008 I led a group of students on a mission trip to serve at Casa Hogar Orphanage in Acapulco. During our trip we met many young people at the orphanage. Each of them had a story to tell but one stood out among all the rest. Myrtille, the woman who was in charge of the orphanage, told us a horrific story about a young boy in Acapulco.
This boy grew up without a name and without a family. He was tied to a tree outside of a house and that is where he spent every hour of the day no matter what the weather. He had no friends, no family, no name, and no real identity. He was treated like a dog.
Every so often a man would come out of the house into the yard to give him a bit of food and some water. This went on for far too long. Finally one of the neighbors had had enough and called the authorities. A family in the area volunteered to take him in and give him a home. They cleaned him up—put clothes on his body and shoes on his feet. They gave him a delicious meal and a warm bed to sleep in. They cared for his every need.
Then they did the unthinkable—they gave him a name—Fernando, and they made him their son. Myrtille and Tolo did all of this for Fernando because God had done this very thing for them. They told Fernando that he would never be homeless again.
The Bible is completely true and tells us the truth about ourselves. We may not like what it has to say, but we need to know it and embrace it. The Bible says that we are all sinners and that our sin has separated us from God. We are all orphans who have run away from God our Father to make a name for ourselves.
At first it seemed like a great idea until we realized what we had done. We had turned our backs on God and embraced the life that sin offered us. It wasn’t very long until we found out that sin didn’t offer us life at all but only death and despair.
We were much like Fernando. We weren’t chained to a tree but we were chained to our sin and left for dead. Sin stripped us of our identity, family, and worst of all, our relationship with our Father.
But just like Myrtille and Tolo, God did the unthinkable. God sent His one and only Son into the world to rescue us and bring us home to Him.
Jesus is a seeking and finding Savior. He came into this world to take our place. The Bible says that God made Jesus to be sin that we might be the righteousness of God. On the cross, Jesus took all of our sin and misery upon Himself and in turn He clothed us in all of His beauty and righteousness.
If you put your trust in Jesus alone, you don’t have to be an orphan any longer.
The Father is waiting for you with His arms wide open. Won’t you run to Him?