KJV calls them the "fatherless."
Several months ago a grandfather in my church preached on what he believes to be one of the greatest problems in the world today: fatherlessness. Have you ever noticed how many of God's names are relational terms? Shepherd, Healer, Master, Comforter, Savior. Father. He could have called Himself our heavenly uncle or third cousin, but He didn't. He gave a staggering significance to the father-child relationship. In Blue Like Jazz, Donald Miller describes going through his childhood with a warped view of God because he had a bad relationship with his dad. God designed this relationship to help us understand something about Himself, and when it goes wrong, the consequences can be tragic.
The epidemic of fatherlessness is a big deal.
For awhile I wondered what this had to do with keeping oneself "unstained by the world." Why mention these two actions together? What's wrong with the world, anyway? Well, what's wrong with the world is that Adam and Eve broke the intended order of things and messed it up. We live in a sub-standard world, like a dilapidated old house just waiting for a strong wind to blow it over, or a strong hand to come and fix it.
The creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. -Romans 8:19-24 (ESV)
Things aren't like they should be, like they could be, like they one day will be. If you want to be unstained by the world, you need to start by getting away from the messed-up state of being that cripples creation and everything in it. Where can you go? To your Father, of course, who has adopted you and given you His Spirit and will one day come and set everything straight.
Getting back to the fatherless: If the world and all of creation is corrupted, and the answer is to be unstained by it and filled with the Spirit of God, and the father-child relationship shows us how this looks, the logical conclusion is what? I think you know. We need to take care of those kids who think a father is someone who hits their mom or cheats on her with his work or yells obscenities or runs away or dies before they're even old enough to remember his face. They need to know their Father, and they need someone to step up and bear His image by being a father. If we're going to call ourselves religious, and many of us do, then we need to ask ourselves if we're knowing the Father and being fathers.
A couple of summers ago I sat on a bench outside a village orphanage in eastern Europe. I closed my eyes as little girls got their fingers caught in my tangled curls and fought over my ponytail holder. They piled my hair on top of my head and made girly chatter I couldn't translate. I held one of their little sisters in my lap while they looked at me with big brown eyes and told me their names. A few days ago a friend told me about her struggle to get along with her dad, and again I heard those sweet voices from the orphanage. The fatherless are everywhere.
"We had read the statistics before... and they were staggering... All at once the numbers became real... and personal. We learned that orphans are easier to ignore before you know their names. They are easier to ignore before you see their faces. It is easier to pretend they're not real before you hold them in your arms. But once you do, everything changes." -David Platt, Radical
So you think you're religious? What are you doing to love the fatherless around you?
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