For hours a young boy waits in his yard … waiting for his father to come home from work and play. On his head, somewhat worn and faded, he wears his favorite baseball cap, and lying over in the grass seemingly forgotten is a bat. He bounces a ball off the roof of the garage, catching it with spectacular leaps and dives, but all goes unnoticed, for he performs for an audience of none. As it begins to grow dark, his mother calls him to come in and eat dinner. Only after considerable prompting does she override his protest so he is willing to leave his post in the front yard. As final terms of surrender he exclaims while still marching inside: “But Dad promised we’d play catch tonight after work. He promised!” Dinner is more silent than the last meal of a condemned prisoner as the young boy turns back every attempt to cheer him up and respectfully overrules each and every plausible excuse his mother suggests. Following dinner, he stations himself at a familiar place — looking out the window that oversees the garage waiting and watching until at last he falls asleep … still waiting for his father’s return.

Orphaned Hearts
In the United States it is rare to find an abandoned basket at an orphanage door in our day. In most cities we seldom see orphaned children scouring the streets for food or searching for warm clothing. Instead we find generation after generation of well-feed and well-dressed children who are taken care of on the outside, but abandoned on the inside. Generations with absentee fathers — providers of provision … while breakers of promises. Children who though they have fathers, yet have orphaned hearts.

When your own father fails to know the longing in your heart to be with him, when it seems like you cannot even get him to put down his paper or stop his work for a minute, you may be living in a nice house and have all the “creature comforts,” yet you are left feeling fatherless. Where can the generation of boys and girls, and yes, now grown men and women who have orphaned hearts turn?

Seeking Satisfaction
It is very true that many hearts show little visible response and seem to bear the desire of a heavenly Father very lightly, but even in them the void may be discovered in the restless attempts they make to fill it. Many have turned to pursuing success, thinking enough money, possessions, or fame may be able to fill the void in their heart. Regardless of the level of success attained, they will still find beneath it all the tugging of an orphaned heart deep within them. Others turn to the pursuit of pleasure to see if drinking, drugs, or sexual exploits will satisfy the hunger of their hearts. They, too, find the path a mere distraction; useful perhaps for numbing the ache, but unable to quench the flame of fatherlessness they feel.

There is only One who can satisfy this desire; One whose fathering fills the heart so it is wonderfully satisfied-and that is God! Every other attempt will fail. God created us for relationship with Him. It has always been His desire to have many sons and daughters to enjoy and bless.

Jesus clearly revealed the Father to those who would have eyes to see. Nearly every reference Jesus made to God refers to Him as “father.” When the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to prayer, He began “Our Father …” And then, as Jesus left His earthly ministry, He pointed to heaven and said, “I am ascending to my Father, and your Father” (John 20:17).

When Jesus was questioned by the scribes and Pharisees as to why He spent time with the sinners, He explained to them the mission He was on — to restore what Adam had lost. He begins by telling them the parable of the lost sheep. Next, He tells them of the parable of the lost coin. Finally, He tells them the longest of these parables — the parable of the lost son, which we commonly call the story of the prodigal son. This parable, found in the fifteenth chapter of Luke, was told to clearly reveal the desire of God to restore back to Himself, those who have gone astray. The message is simple: those who in no way deserve the forgiveness and acceptance of Father God are still forgiven and welcomed back. When fatherless by their own choice, God would yet choose to take them back as His children. God never changes … He is still the Father of the fatherless.

Doubtless God Is Our Father
Even though Jesus revealed the idea of Father God clearly as He walked this earth, it seems we have difficulty truly grasping it. God being our Father is far from a New Testament idea. Throughout the Bible, God refers to Himself as our father. The Scriptures reveal Him not only as a father, but “a father to the fatherless” (Psalm 68:5). The saints of old often seemed to understand this better than we do today.

When the children of Israel were steeped in rebellion, unworthy of the name and position God had granted them, listen to the cry of prophet’s heart: “Doubtless You are our Father, though Abraham was ignorant of us, and Israel does not acknowledge us. You, O LORD, are our Father” (Isaiah 63:16). Once again they had wandered far from the God of their fathers, and they felt as if their fathers had cast them off. If Abraham were to appear on earth, he would not know them nor claim them as his offspring. If Israel (Jacob) were to return, he would not acknowledge them, as if they didn’t exist. What then can they do? The cry within their hollow hearts tells them that they cannot endure the burden of life, nor bear its sorrows without a father. Yet they are not without hope, declares the prophet, for they can bypass their earthly fathers and the fathers of their faith, and move beyond men to have a father in God. Though their hearts are empty and orphaned everywhere else — forced to their very end — yet “doubtless You ... You are our Father!”

It is thousands of years since this cry was uttered from the people of Israel, but it has never died out. It is still present and pressing in the heart of every man and woman. These words express a deep longing of the human heart, a longing that is perhaps more relevant in our day than at any other time in history. With all its foolishness and superficiality and sinful desires, the heart of man has been made to seek its heavenly Father. While the desperate need for Father God has been placed in all our hearts, even for those who believe, the full sense of God’s Fatherhood is not generally gained at once. It is not that the position is not gained at once. As soon as we come to God through Christ, we are no longer an enemy of God, nor a stranger to God, but a child of God. However, it is only as we follow the leading of the Holy Spirit that we are able to recognize the Father’s voice and see the moving of His hand, and fully come into sonship. “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God” (Romans 8:14). Remember, it is the Holy Spirit who teaches us to know God as our “Daddy,” when He causes us to cry, “Abba, Father.”

Have you discovered the Father who can fill the deep desires of your “orphaned heart”? It doesn’t matter if your earthly father was never there for you or always there for you, your heavenly Father wants to come fill your heart with forgiveness, love, and acceptance. Even those who have been raised with a great and caring father will find a hollowness in their hearts that only their heavenly Father can fill. Let us come to our sense as the prodigal son did, and say, “I will arise and go to my Father!” Then we will receive the embrace of our heavenly Father, and as we follow the Holy Spirit, we will come into die inheritance Christ died to give us … we will begin to discover our true Father, our Abba, Father.