May 30 - Never Orphaned

May 30 – Never Orphaned.

“If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.” (John 14:15-21)

I don’t care how old you are, when your parents are both gone, it is a strange and lonely feeling.  You can hardly call me an orphan as I don’t need them to take care of me in any physical manner, but I do sometimes need their support and love. 

When you turn your life over to Jesus, His Father becomes your Father.  He knew that the separation that occurs because He isn’t physically around would be difficult for His disciples and for each of us. 

Notice that there are many ways He offers comfort.  Three to be exact and they line up quite nicely with the Trinity.  The Holy Spirit will come and act as an advocate.  He will live with us and be in us.  Jesus will come to us.  When the world can’t see Him, we will still see Him.  Because He lives, we will live.  Then, finally … we will be loved by the Father.  All of these things are offered to us to comfort us and guide us through a life without direct physical contact with our Father.

Our parents try to offer us a lot so that when they are gone, we can function on our own.  Jesus goes much further than that.  We don’t have to try to function on our own – we have the entirety of the Trinity that stays with us in varying ways.  We are never spiritual orphans, we are never alone.