A Father to the Fatherless

God has given me a heart for children. I use this gift every week as I serve in my church’s children’s ministry. Each week I look forward to seeing the children and teaching them about God. It brings me great joy to see how much the kids learn. Yet, I feel that God has a bigger task in store for me. My wife, Diane, and I have struggled through over 6 years of fertility treatments and procedures to have children. Naturally, it has been very difficult for Diane as a woman, but it has been difficult for me, as well. God has given me a strong desire to be a father. Spending several Father’s Days with no living father or grandfather of my own has been difficult for me. As each Father’s Day passed and we were still childless, I questioned why God was doing this. I often wondered why He gave this desire to me and then closed the doors to having children. I didn’t understand until Diane and I started discussing adoption.

There are lots of orphans around the world who need a loving family. God has given me a special gift – the ability to love other children as if they were my own flesh and blood. I know now that God is going to help me use this gift to love two orphans living in Ukraine. I will love them not just “as if” they were my own – they will be my own children. This is precisely what my Father in Heaven did for me in October, 1985. Being an adoptive parent takes a special gift from God. Has God called you to take this step? Consider James 1:27a “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this; to look after orphans.” Not everyone is called to adopt, but we are all called to look after the orphans. Every week that I’m teaching the children at church, my goal is to minister to them. Every week, God ministers to me through the children. I know that God will bless Diane and I, and minister to us through the children we adopt. When we began our adoption journey, our focus was to have children. Now, our focus is to rescue two children from an orphanage and give them a future that includes a relationship with Jesus. Looking at the whole picture, I can see that this journey is about the children, not about my own desires.

Perhaps you can relate. Maybe you don’t have a father to spend Father’s Day with either. I want you to know that God promises us in John 14:18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” Psalm 68 describes God as “a father to the fatherless”. Reflect upon these verses, pray, and hear what God has to say to you. He has taught me that He is a Father to all of us…especially the fatherless.