A Father Who Never Forgets or Abandons His Daughters
"I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee."
Hebrews 13: 5
King James Version
EXPLORATION
"A Father Who Never Forgets or Abandons His Daughters"
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"Everything that a (woman) leans upon but God, will be a dart that will certainly pierce (her) heart through and through. (She) who leans only upon Christ, lives the highest, choicest, safest, and sweetest life."
Thomas Brooks
What is the single greatest lesson I have learned from the "Eden Story?"
INSPIRATION
"God created man (and woman) in order to have someone on whom to shower His love."
Irenaeus of Lyons
My father was orphaned. When he was just six months old, his mother died suddenly. Not prepared to take care of a baby, my dad's father left him with a neighbor and returned to Tennessee where he died – never ever reconnecting with the little boy he left behind.
My dad rarely spoke about the situation. However occasionally he would tell me things that gave me insight into the hurt he endured because he felt abandoned.
Abandonment can happen to us in many ways. Someone you thought loved you walks out the door never to return. Or someone near and dear dies suddenly. Or – and this is the big one – someone says to you, "Well, Dorothy, you didn't live up to my expectations. You aren't good enough. You're not my friend anymore."
I believe we can all say that in one way or another, there have been times when we have felt that someone in our life abandoned us.
But imagine for a moment if you were Eve. You had walked and talked, face-to-face, with God. You had enjoyed His company and friendship. You felt you were loved. Then you did something wrong. Not a little goof – even though to you it didn't seem like a big deal. No – your mistake turned not only your own life upside down, but every generation after you. Think what it would have been like going back toward your Eden home and seeing "Cherubim's and a flaming sword" keeping you away from the tree of life. I can't even begin to grasp the heartache Eve lived with. We must remember the Scripture, in Genesis 5: 5 tells us Adam lived to be 930 years old. It wouldn't be a stretch to say Eve lived at least 900 years. It wasn't like Eve had to see the result of her failure for a few years. Instead, she had to watch the deterioration of the world as she knew it for nearly 1,000 years. I can imagine, as she watch things going to "hell in a hand basket" she asked, "God – where are You? Did You have to abandon me? Isn't this what we do when tragedy and trauma – even of our own making – befalls us? "God, where are You? Why have You left me?"
I know that if there was one lesson that I learned from Eve's life and even the lives of Adah and Zillah is that no matter what happens, God never leaves or forsakes His daughters or sons. God could have let Adam and Eve live their 900 plus years and then watch them die. God could have said, "Well, you two smarties – you wanted knowledge of good and evil. Now you've got it. How do you like it? Are you happy?" Instead, immediately after the evil deed had been done, God in loving-kindness gave hope for a rescue to His two created children. He planted a seed of promise in their hearts so ever-after when Adam and Eve saw the results of their disobedient choice, they could say, "I'm so thankful God didn't abandon us. He's promised a way out!"
As willfully disobedient as Adam and Eve were, God never left them. But there's more! Even though the consequences of sin marginalized women who became dominated possessions by men like Lamech who took two wives, Adah and Zillah – God remembered His daughters. He remembered them well enough to make certain you and I know them today! Lamech may have had a "diminished" view of women but God's daughters are never forgotten or abandoned by their Father. God remembered their names because they mattered to Him.
As we shall see in the coming weeks, our Father's love continually surrounds His daughters with protection and strength, giving His girls wisdom and guidance as they choose to be sheltered under the umbrellas of His love.
"Desire only God, and your heart will be satisfied."
St. Augustine
AFFIRMATION
"O thou whose reason guides the universe,
Maker of earth and heaven,
Who from eternity dost send forth time
And thyself motionless
Giv'st all things power to move.
Now cause outside thyself prevailed on thee
To fashion floating matter to a world,
But an instinctive pattern in thy mind.
Utterly good, and with no taint of malice
Thou didst fashion all things in that heavenly mould.
Thou the supreme beauty, carrying
A world of beauty in thy mind, didst shape
A perfect whole and made it then release
Its perfect parts: numbered the elements
That cold might contain fire, and dryness water;
Lest fire too pure might vanish into air,
Or weight of water drag down flooded earth.
O Father, give the spirit power to climb
To the fountain of all light, and be purified.
Break through the mists of earth, the weight of the clod,
Shine forth in splendour, thou that art calm weather,
And quiet resting place for faithful souls.
To see thee is the end and the beginning,
Thou carriest us, and thou dost go before,
Thou are the journey, and the journey's end."
Boethius
(480-c.524)
Your friend,
Dorothy Valcárcel, Author
When A Woman Meets Jesus
Dorothy@TransformationGarden.com
