The Eternal Bond

A routine health check-up turned into a nightmare when my brother-in-law was diagnosed with cancer.

No one imagined that my sister-in-law would soon be faced with the task of raising three teenagers all by herself. Her whole world changed. Suddenly, the overwhelming responsibility of parenting three boys fell entirely on her shoulders—making decisions, taking on new roles, managing with her income as a teacher, and above all, navigating life as a single parent. If not for her strong faith and anchor in God, she would have crumbled under the pressure.

But thank God she had that anchor in Christ—a supportive family and good friends who walked with her through her moments of pain. While such situations are often thrust upon people unexpectedly by the tragedy of death, others become single parents by choice.

Parenting was never meant to be solely a male or female responsibility. God’s design for families involves both husband and wife working together. A child needs both a father and a mother to grow up in a balanced environment.

Every child born through the union of a man and a woman has the basic right and privilege to be raised by both parents. Every possible effort should be made to preserve a marriage and ensure these rights are not denied to a child. It often puzzles me to see the hardness of heart in some parents heading toward divorce—some showing little sympathy for how this affects their children. I remember one counselee saying, with no remorse, “That’s the child’s fate—to grow up with one parent.”

A study by psychologists Howard S. Friedman and Leslie R. Martin on longevity found that parental divorce during childhood emerged as the strongest predictor of early death in adulthood. The grown children of divorced parents died, on average, almost five years earlier than children from intact families. The causes of death ranged from accidents and violence to cancer, heart attacks, and strokes.

Parental break-ups, the authors argue, remain among the most traumatic and harmful events in a child's life. So, any move away from God’s plan for marriage is a serious concern.

But in unique and painful situations like the death of a spouse—as in the case of my sister-in-law—the Bible reminds us that God Himself becomes the heavenly Father to the fatherless. No wonder Jesus taught us to call God “our Father in heaven,” not our “grandfather”!

For children who have been abandoned or left without a parent, this is an eternal promise to cling to:
“Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you.” (Isaiah 49:15)

This is God’s promise to you. So begin to relate to your heavenly Father—the One who cares deeply for you—and enjoy an eternal relationship with Him.