The world is starving for fathers.

I have tasted it in my own life— the insecurity of the orphan. Even though I have a wonderful father and mother, I have lived most of my life searching for someone to make me sure, someone to answer the question, someone to relieve the ache, someone to settle my haunting crisis of identity.

It’s not just my crisis. Everywhere I look I see it. I live in a world that is desperate to know Dad. It surrounds us, engulfs us, this crisis of identity. It is the overwhelming battle we all face. From the tent cities in Haiti to the house down my street, from the orphanage in China to the Sunday morning service around the corner, humanity is living in the ache of fatherlessness. We are in crisis.

“From the orphanage in China to the Sunday morning service around the corner, humanity is living in the ache of fatherlessness.”

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It was evident in my friend’s seventy-year-old grandfather when she witnessed his gut-wrenching weeping after he heard the news of the death of a father he had never even met. I saw the haunting in the eyes of the four-year-old girl being held by a hurting mother on the front porch while the little girl waved to her weekend daddy as he drove away. I heard it in the voice of a young man of God who leads a small group and is passionate about his faith. It’s evidenced in the lives of the rich and the poor. And while it’s an obvious issue for those who have not yet said yes to God, oddly it’s hardly less prevalent in the church. Humanity aches in the insecurity of fatherlessness.

It was Adam and Eve who did this to us. They cursed us to live in the desperate ache of insecurity. They took their God-given freedom, and yours and mine in the process, and they spit on it. They chose this hell. They chose to trade security for insecurity. They placed the law of need between our Father’s love and us. That’s what that stupid apple cost us. The knowledge of good and evil positioned humanity to live in the absolute and overwhelming reality of need. The moment they sinned, we all became orphans, stumbling along, scared and unsure, separated from God the Father. There have been days when I’ve hated them for it.

But “God (the Father) is love” (1 John 4:18). And He is always good. Two thousand years ago, something so remarkable happened that I can’t help but grin when I think about it. Jesus, God’s only Son, became Love in human form. Then He walked the earth sure in His Father’s love and He lived as the Father’s love perfectly revealed.

“I would like to suggest that our questions, longing, insecurity, and identity are forever answered, settled, satisfied, and secured in our revelation of God as Father.”

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God has more names than there are ice cream flavors. He is the Creator, Shepherd, and Deliverer. He is Holy, Majestic, and Righteous. He is our Peace, Provider, Comforter, and Healer. He is Lord, King, Master, and Savior. The list goes on and on. And while Jesus certainly revealed all of these attributes, they weren’t His primary objective. He came for one reason: to reveal the Father. But why?

I would like to suggest that our questions, longing, insecurity, and identity are forever answered, settled, satisfied, and secured in our revelation of God as Father.

I have forgiven Adam and Eve; Jesus made that possible. He lived, died, and lived again so that we would no longer have to live as orphans. He settled the crisis of identity forever.

Jason Clark is a writer, speaker and lead communicator at A Family Story ministries. His mission is to encourage sons and daughters to grow sure in the love of an always-good heavenly Father. He and his wife, Karen, live in North Carolina with their three children.

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