Daily Wisdom 06-14-2001 My Father Is Missing

The spotlight in society has fallen on women who choose to have a child, but not a husband. On one hand, themedia has been telling the conservative voices to not bother single mothers. On the other hand, upi see moreand more articles about what happens when there is no father. One of the leading health officers in the UnitedStates has said, "The greatest issue facing us is fatherlessness." Isn't that surprising? Time magazine commentedon women who choose the fatherless family: "They are bringing a child into the world with a hole at the centerof his life where a father should be."

Our word from the Word of God comes from Luke 15. This is the familiar story of the prodigal son, who gothis inheritance early from his father, went to a far country and spent it all, and ended up feeding pigs, and tryingto eat with them. Verse 17 says, "When he came to his senses, he said, 'How many of my father's hiredmen have food to spare, and here I am starving to death. I will set out and go back to my father, andsay to him, Father I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to becalled your son. Make me like one of your hired men.' So he got up and went to his father."

This is the story of a searching man whose real problem was that he was away from his father. Maybe that's apicture of you right now. In the the story, God is the father, and God has told us He wants us to know Him asHeavenly Father. You say, "Well, if he is like the father I had, I'm not too interested." Well, remember this.God is not like the father you had on earth. He is like the father we all wish we had, and what you are feelingdown deep in your soul is father lonely. We have a hole that we are waiting for a father to occupy. How do welose Him, and how do we find Him? Look at the verbs in Luke 15. It says that the young man "set off for adistant country." The Bible says we have all done that. It says, "We have all sinned and fallen short ofGod's glorious ideal," and wandered away like sheep. We are away from God by our own choosing. Thenext verb says, "He squandered his wealth." All your years away from God are squandered years. Theyare wasted years until you know the relationship with a father that you were made for. The next verb says,"He spent everything." You can do that so easily. We spend, in search of the missing part of us. We spendour self-respect, our relationships, our virginity, our reputation, and our future. We can not find ourselves inachievements, relationships, or pleasure. We spend everything, and then it says, "he longed to fill hisstomach." Maybe you feel an awful emptiness inside that nothing has been able to fill.

Then we read, "He came to his senses." Maybe that is where God is bringing you right now. It is hard tolive without God. It is hell to die without Him. It says that the son went up to his father. There is only one wayyou can get to the father you were made by and were made for. In John 14:6, Jesus says, "I am the way,the truth and the life. No man comes to the except through me." What would happen if you came toHim today? It says that "while the boy was a long way off, his father saw him, was filled withcompassion for him, and ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him." That is thewelcome you could get from God today. He runs to you with His arms open wide. Why don't you run to Himand be born into His family today? No longer will you have that hole in the center of your life where a fathershould be. No earth father could ever fill that hole anyway. It was made for your heavenly Father. Come toHim and you will never be father lonely again.

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