I Had No Father ~ blog
These words come to me often. Not to keep me in remembrance of the negative in my past, but to keep me mindful and thankful that God always wanted to be my Father. He already knew me before I was even born and chose me. He picked me up when I had, not one, good father in my life and protected me from countless things that I won't even go into in the blog. Most don't know my story, but the truth is I died 3 times in the hospital after I was born, but God had different plans, and here I am at age 62 praising Him and giving thanks to Him for being my one and only good, good Father.
Ezekiel 16:6 NIV
“‘Then I passed by and saw you kicking about in your blood, and as you lay there in your blood I said to you, “Live!”
My natural father was an abusive man. He physically abused my mother and used her terribly to help him live in his addictions. He made her work while he stayed at home, supposedly caring for me, and the truth is, he was not caring for me as a baby at all. Now, before anyone assumes that I am writing this because I am somehow in unforgiveness, I say no, you are incorrect. My father abandoned us when I was very young, and yet I found him at the age of 23. Before I even got to meet him again, he murdered a woman and ended up in prison. I chose to forgive, and even though I never actually did meet him face to face, I began corresponding with my father while he was in prison. The Bible tells us that we are to honor our mother and father. He is certainly not who I would have chosen. In fact, he went on to marry several more times and had more children, but the story remained the same. He was an abusive alcoholic and beat them all. In the end, that anger and rage came out in taking the life of another.
I cannot say that my stepfather was much better. I guess the one thing I can say is that he did support my mother and me financially, but then so did she. She worked and never relied on him to care for us as a family. I have a wonderful blessing out of his relationship with my mother in a younger sister who is 5 years younger than me, but he, too, was abusive and not only physically but also driven by sexual demons, and yes, I'm sure you know what I would say next if I intended to get into any of that. He did things to me as a young teenage girl that I should have NEVER had to experience or live with. Many years later, I found out that he did the same in his own family with his sister. Something was wrong right off the bat there.
When I think of things like this, I am reminded of others in the word who were called and chosen by God who truly did not have a father figure. Why? I believe it is because God wanted to be their Father, and so the failures of man sometimes can move us closer to our Father in heaven. We move into relationship, provision, safety, and true love. A love that goes beyond anything that we can even imagine.
ABRAHAM...
Yes, he had a father and a family, but they were idol worshippers, and so God tells Abraham on purpose to get away from his family.
Genesis 12:1
Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you.
MOSES...
was taken away from his family. God worked miracles in a very evil time when other children were being killed, and of course, we know the story. Moses is put into a basket in the Nile and ends up at Pharaoh's Palace, where he is taken up by a sister of Pharaoh. He is blessed to have his own mother as his nursing mother (a total miracle), but for 40 years, Moses is literally taken from his natural family. Then he ends up in the desert for another 40 years, but God steps in through a burning bush, and the rest is history. God was Moses' Father, and He lifted him out of the mire and muck that he found himself in for the sake of other children of God and so that he would deliver them from the evil.
Exodus 2:3-5 NKJV
But when she could no longer hide him, she took an ark of bulrushes for him, daubed it with asphalt and pitch, put the child in it, and laid it in the reeds by the river’s bank. And his sister stood afar off, to know what would be done to him. Then the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river. And her maidens walked along the riverside; and when she saw the ark among the reeds, she sent her maid to get it.
ESTHER...
an amazing woman who was also called and anointed for something she could have never imagined for herself. The story of Esther gives us all hope that God can use us, no matter what our situation or circumstance is. Esther's parents had passed, and she was cared for by an uncle until she, too, was taken against her own free will to the Palace of King Xerxes. She had no say-so. It certainly was not a part of her plan for her life, but God ALWAYS works all things together for the good of those who love Him, and so He steps in and uses Esther to save and deliver His people yet again.
Esther 2:7 NKJV
And Mordecai had brought up Hadassah, that is, Esther, his uncle’s daughter, for she had neither father nor mother. The young woman was lovely and beautiful. When her father and mother died, Mordecai took her as his own daughter.
JOSEPH...
We all know the story of Joseph, and yes, he did have a father. In fact, a father on earth who loved him dearly and treated him as if he were special, and he was because the evil in his brothers' hearts sent Joseph in a direction that he'd of never chosen for himself and on a path that was much more difficult than he'd lived so far or even dreamed of. Joseph is betrayed by his own brothers, thrown into a pit, sold into slavery, yet blessed in everything that he does. He truly goes through the hardest of trials to finally see his dreams come to pass, and overnight, he goes from the prison to a Palace on the Nile and second only to the Pharaoh of that day, who chose him for his excellent spirit and wisdom. Yet again, God works all things together for the good. Was it God's plan for Joseph to be thrown into the pit and sold? No, it was never His plan, but He knows the end from the beginning, and so He is there at every turn like a Supernatural GPS System constantly rerouting us to where He ultimately wants us to go.
Genesis 45:5 NKJV
But now, do not therefore be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life.
I could name a few more. Timothy, we are told, had his mother and grandmother. Mephibosheth, whose father, Jonathan, was dead, was lost and disabled, and yet the Lord loved him and sent King David to lift him up, bring him to the Palace, and care for him. Beloved even Jesus, who was given a wonderful stepfather, lost him at some point. We aren't really told when, but once Jesus begins His ministry, we only see His mother, Mary, in his life. Jesus, too, became fatherless, but the truth is He knew who His Father really was, and the Bible tells us in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and even 2nd Peter that God made sure Jesus and others knew He was His true Father who loved Him.
2 Peter 1:17 NKJV
For He received from God the Father honor and glory when such a voice came to Him from the Excellent Glory: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
And I will close by saying that today, if you harden not your heart, you too can hear your Father in Heaven saying you are his beloved daughter or son and in you He is well pleased. Tune your ear to your One True Father because you are not abandoned or ignored because you are fatherless. Quite the opposite, beloved. You are actually called and chosen for something even greater than others, and this is absolutely and without a doubt what I believe about you and even what I believe about me for such a time as this.
Sheryl York 🕊️
America Reimagined
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