Orphaned -- Adopted

      When you think about it, we'll all be orphaned eventually: some are, sadly, early in life, others not until much later in adulthood when their parents pass away. I was fortunate to have parents who lived until ages 96 and 100. I know that's rare, and I am so thankful to have been able to grow closer with them as we all aged. It was, nonetheless, difficult to say "Good-bye" to them, even though I was well-advanced in years myself. My mother in reality abandoned us several years before her body gave up; those two or three years when her body was here but her mind was not were excruciating, a sort of purgatory between having her with us and not.

      2015 was, however, the year I became a true orphan. In May, one month before his 101st birthday, my father passed away quietly, alone, in his sleep. As my son still remembers in great admiration, "He was studying to teach Sunday School until the moment he died!" I'll never forget the sheer agony of receiving the news-- physical and emotional wrenching as I had never experienced until then. Part of the pain was realizing I was now the senior generation, but much of it was the sense of abandonment. You just never think about your parents leaving you.

      To make matters worse, just a month later the quartet I had sung with for ten years, the three people who were my musical completion as well as my brothers and sister in Christ, decided to disband. I felt as if someone had cut off my arms and legs-- first no "Daddy" to go visit and nurture, then no "Wing and A Prayer" to struggle long hours over a chord and then rejoice when we could praise the Lord in perfect harmony.

      I'll never forget the title of one of Christian's earliest sermons: "But God." Perhaps that should be the title of this blog. I truly believe the past four years since I was "orphaned" have seen the most intense growth I have ever had in my relationship to God. Because I didn't have these obvious people needing and depending on me, I've had to discover God's purpose for me at long last. And slowly, slowly I've come to realize that I was never an orphan, could never be, because He is my eternal Father, ever since I acknowledged Him, through His Son Jesus, as my Savior! My friend, don't wait to experience earthly abandonment to recognize your place as God's child! As a favorite Wing and A Prayer song reminds us all, "You're Not Alone"-- not ever, not one minute!

       "He predestined us to be adopted as sons through Jesus Christ for Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will."  (Ephesians 1:5 CSB)

      "Your eyes saw me when I was formless; all my days were written in your book and planned before a single one of them began."  (Psalm 139:16 CSB)

      * Please read all of Psalm 139: I promise you'll be blessed!