When it gets physical (you’re not an orphan)
Quiet, kind, the man with the healing hands said, “I’ve always thought that was a component of it for you.”
Huh. Really? Stress turned physical, tightening muscles, pulling bones, causing discomfort and pain? Oblivious, mind going everywhere else, I’d not twigged to this truth, that my anxiety and worry had settled into my shoulders, my neck, hurting…hurting…
Last week, feeling pain again, I popped back in, Little at my side, to have it set straight. Nearly done at last, and there it came. “I feel that I need to tell you this, that you are loved no matter what. There’s nothing else you have to do; there’s nothing left, to earn His love.” I sat quiet, listening.
“I sense tension in you; you’re carrying it.” Trusting him, this family friend, and knowing his heart, I tuned my ears and my own heart to his words. Then, going to the bottom, cutting straight to the core, he said, “You’re not an orphan.”
Not an orphan. He was right. I knew this; knew it in my head, but now and then, in the heat of the battle and the grind of the everyday, I wasn’t living this truth from my heart. Instead, I was picking up this worry, snatching up that concern and piling it on my back as though I alone were responsible or able to carry it. And it was hurtin’ me.
Today, I turn back to truth. I remember once again that I’m not an orphan. I have not been abandoned, left to my own devices, for I have a Father.
My Father’s mercies are new every morning. No matter how I messed it up yesterday, He and I, we start fresh today.
My Father is powerful; so powerful that worlds were created and planets were hung by a single word. So powerful that lightning flashes, thunder rages at His command. And the “incomparably great power” that raised Jesus from the dead is available for me – for me.
My Father owns the cattle on a thousand hills. There is no lack, whether material, emotional, physical, or spiritual, that He cannot supply. He never runs out of provisions.
My Father thinks of me day and night. His thoughts, He says, cannot be numbered. His banner over me is love. He chose me, after all, adopted me, picking me on purpose! Nothing can happen to me that He does not allow.
I am kept in the shadow of His wings, safe and secure. My steps are ordered. Just as He was present in my past, so He is with me in the now, and He will be with me every step, every moment, every day, until I see Him face to face.
Hey, you. You right there, carrying the weight of the world on your back. You, feeling alone, abandoned. That it’s up to you to make it work…
If you’re His child, you’re not alone. There’s nothing left for you to do. You are loved. You’re not an orphan. You have a Father.