Father to the Fatherless

"Mommy, Mommy!" cried out the voice of a child to me. A child not my own, yet one that we had welcomed into our home.

"What?" I replied, shocked that she would call me that. It's not that I never expected for foster children in our care to look up to us as parents and call us such things as "Mommy" and "Daddy", but rather that this was our first foster, and a respite at that. She was quite literally here today and gone tomorrow. But barely into that 29 hour window of time that she was with us, she uttered those words and continued to say them the duration of her stay.

You're probably thinking, "Oh, wow, she must've adjusted well" or something along those lines. And truth be told, I felt that for a brief moment. But what I didn't expect to feel the first time a foster kid called me "Mommy" was such sadness. Don't get me wrong, it fills my heart with joy to get the opportunity to be a parent and show love to kids who may not get it otherwise. But for a child to be so able to attach themselves to a total stranger and refer to them as if they had known that person as a parent their whole life long after only a few hours...something about that just hit me so wrong.

I am glad for that girl too though. Such heart and versatility she must have at the age of 4 to be able to be thrown into a house of strangers for a weekend and immediately feel and act as if they are her family and that is her home. But such sadness too that we could fill such a role...or rather, a hole, so speedily. Of course, all this got me thinking.

At its core, orphan care speaks intricately into the heart of God as Father. We as Christians know God is the ultimate father figure, yet we sometimes struggle to really accept him as such. It seems to be so much easier to accept Him in all His other roles, such as Creator, Judge, King, Lord, etc., but people get stuck on the "Daddy" one.

I tend to think that it has to do with the fact that we tend to define "Dad" based on our human perception of a father. Turns out that while there are tons of truly great dads here on earth, there are also a lot of dads that are not. But if God is the ultimate father, isn't He the one by which we should set the standard? All the rest are only human, but He is so much higher, as is His love for us.

The song you are most likely to hear sung if you were to stop by our house at random is called Good Good Father. I love this version by Housefires:

Who He is is something I need to be reminded of. And not only of His goodness, but that I am His beloved child. It's not that my dad is bad, but rather that God our Father is so so good. And He loves us regardless. We can try to run and hide and indeed, many do. But prodigal or not, He is irreversibly woven into the fabric of who we are. We can't escape that. Even those of us who wish to distance ourselves the furthest away from Him still bear His resemblance. We reflect Him to the world.

"But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror

the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit."

2 Corinthians 3:18

Even though you and I have earthly fathers, biological or figural, God still reigns supreme. We are His Imago Dei, created in His image and for His glory. We need not run to another. And try though some do, they can't escape that fact. It is irreversibly sewn into the fabric of our being, that Fatherhood.

"Then God said,

'Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness...'"

Genesis 1:26

For prodigals, He waits. When we turn to another in search of answers, He's still the One. Even if we are confused about who our Father is, He remains. In the times when it seems like the world has forgotten about you, He hasn't. When you feel like He's left you, He is there. When your perception of what a parent should be is so skewed, you no longer know who to turn to, turn to Him...He longs for you to.