In our culture it isn’t unlikely to hear of absent fathers or to have experienced it first hand. It’s not uncommon to hear that most people live without a dad or if they have one they were less than ideal. Even though our circumstances may be different it is something that we all see on a day to day basis.
“It is estimated that 24.7 million children live absent their biological father”, in recent events Kelly Clarkson performed a song that made us feel those numbers in our homes across America. Her song “Piece by Piece” begins like this…
“And all I remember is your back,walking toward the airport, leaving us all in your past. I traveled 1500 miles to see you,begged you to want me, but you didn’t want to.”
Too many of us experience that feeling of abandonment, it’s not uncommon for us to be able to relate to those lyrics, even if we were fortunate enough not to be one of those 24.7 million children, even if our fathers were all that they should be to us, we know what it feels like to feel alone.
As a women who lost her father to sickness at the age of 11, I understand that feeling all too well, even though in my case it wasn’t his choice to leave, I struggled most of my childhood feeling unwanted. I mean after all if the statistics are right, to a little girl her dad is her first love. The one who models the way we allow ourselves to be loved by other men in the future.
To young men the role is just as important, a father is the role model of life, how they are expected to perform as men, husbands and fathers, they are the ones who give approval and acceptance.
They are in essence the foundation of how we treat the relationships we have for the rest of our lives, being a dad is a really important task but we live in a world that is broken, a world where people leave, a world where people are hurt and abused by the ones who are meant to protect them.
Amazingly, further on in her song she tell us there is hope, she continues with..
“But piece by piece, he collected me,up off the ground, where you abandon things.Piece by piece he filled the holes that you burned in me at six years old and you know, he never walks awayHe never asks for money, he takes care of meHe loves me Piece by piece, he restored my faiththat a man can be kind and a father could… stay.”
You see, no matter where we are, whether we have been abandoned by our fathers, or lost them to illness, whether we have had a difficult relationship with them or have no relationship at all, if we see them all the time or have no clue what they look like.
We all have someone who is willing to step into those shoes for us, someone who will be there for us, someone who will never forsake us. Even though this world has taken too much from us and asked way too much of us we have someone who is offering to give it back and the only thing He asks of us in return is our faith and trust in Him.
John 1:12 says“But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.”
He gave us the “right to become children of God.”, I don’t know about you but that gives me relief, I no longer have to worry about being fatherless because no matter what HE is my father.
Galatians 3:26 tell us “For you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus”
Through Jesus we have the ability to live our lives with the best of role models, someone who never falters, never fails to come through for us, someone who is always consistent and never changing.
“ God is not a man, so he does not lie.He is not human, so he does not change his mind…”
Once we are His we are always His, something this world and the people of it can never promise us!
Piece by piece He promises to make us something new
“This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!” 2 Corinthians 5:17
to pick us up from where we are and give us hope
”And so at last the poor have hope,and the snapping jaws of the wicked are shut” Job 5:16
he promises to heal our broken hearts and the scares that we are all too familiar with
“He heals the brokenhearted and bandages their wounds” Psalm 147:3
He promises to be more to us than what we had and way more than we deserve!
**Written by Jessica Evans**
Youth Director at Grace Community Church
As a student in high school, Jessica attended Grace with a friend and was a member of the youth group. After graduation and getting married in 2010 her and her husband, Jeff, felt lead back to Grace for Easter in 2013. Shortly after, they were both called to ministry in the youth department as well as being offered full-time positions as staff members.
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