In the Holman Christian Standard translation, “fatherless” appears 40 times. The first instance reflects God’s passion, “You must not mistreat any widow or fatherless child.” (Exodus 22:22) Elsewhere, we read that God is the defender of the fatherless, he executes justice for the fatherless, and so on.
From The Mentoring Project, they estimate 25 million children are growing up in fatherless homes. Children from fatherless homes are more likely to be involved in violent crime, more likely to join a gang, more likely to become addicted to drugs, more likely to drop out of school, and so on and so on. You could argue correlation does not mean causation, but the statistics are too strong and broad to ignore. If you don’t think not having a father around affects our youth, check out the comments left yesterday, Father’s Day, on the YouTube page for the above video.
But it doesn’t have to be like this. God “defends the cause of the fatherless” (Deuteronomy 10:18). If we are after God’s own heart, then we should also be defending the cause of the fatherless. Here are just a sampling of online resources, blogs, and friends who have taken up this cause. Some are focusing on the fatherless, others are strengthening the fathers who are present. My prayer is that together we can reflect God’s heart and his character as the perfect Father. Not every father will be faithful, but God always will be. Perfect father of mine.
Amen Brother…defending the fatherless is having a heart like God!