A Wounded Son

He was Adonis to the masses: chiseled, handsome, affable. A distinguished son born to a famous father.

The story was raw, detailing a life of suppressed pain. The gaping wound of fatherlessness had festered, quietly infecting flesh and bone, churning throughout his childhood, adolescence, and seeping into adulthood.

The world seemed his oyster as he grew in fame and wealth, a colorful life amid bougie friends and unending lovers. But appearances are deceptive murals, painted with broad brushstrokes.

The reality was that he was a complicated, tormented man, his soul a painting dotted with tumultuousness, grief as wild and unpredictable as a storm-tossed sea. He lay shipwrecked alongside dozens of one-night passengers, lonely relationships that quenched his grief for a night but left him floundering by morning.

As the years passed, he took increasing and unusual risks, upping the ante, ravenous for something to ignite and burn hot in his chest—anything other than sorrow for his absent father.

The world gasped at his sudden, violent death—a man snuffed out in his prime.

His final years were squandered, as he dabbled in Buddhism, Islam, and Hinduism. A fruitless journey that left him wanting, wandering in circles; desperately unsatisfied.

My eyes filled as I closed my Kindle.

How tragic.

Fatherlessness, twice over.

***

Stories of battered, barren hearts abound. Oh, how every person longs to be known and cherished by their father; loved unconditionally.

That timeless, relentless ache to hear: I love you not for what you do, or who you become, or what you achieve. I love you because you are mine.

We live in a land of broken down rubble, where many fathers have chosen to abscond from their high and holy duty. Unhealed children of all ages roam the planet, stuck, their lives reciting their sorrows.

A man without a father is a man without a country.

***

Money, marriage, fame, friendships, children, health, anger, power, beauty, drink, vacations, vocations, retirement, travel—none of these things will assuage father hunger. There remains only one way to heal.

Turn wholeheartedly to God, the perfect Father.

Regardless of your earthly dad, the Lord stands ready to receive you.

God gave up his Son, sending him to die upon the cross out of the deepest love. Because of his great love, we may turn from our sin and run to the Father and, through Jesus Christ, stand redeemed, forever.

Do you see? God was pleased to wound his Son in order that we—as sons of Adam and daughters of Eve—may call him Abba.

“For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit… “(1 Peter 5:7)

This is the Father-love we are meant to pursue. Holy, unshakable, unending love, resulting in supreme peace.

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“For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named…”

Ephesians 3:14-15

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