It’s the club no one ever wanted to be in. From wife to widow.
One day I was happily married and in the space of a few hours, a widow and single mom to 7.
Days later, at the funeral service for my husband, an older woman gently approached me, extended a hug and said she was from the widow’s ministry at church.
“Oh. I’m a widow,” I mumbled through the fog that was grief as the reality of my new identity hit me.
Grappling with deep grief for me and my children, one of the first things I did was look up every Bible verse on widows and the fatherless. Sure I’d read them over the years, but now these scriptures applied to me. To my children.
And so one morning, I flipped from my concordance to the pages of my Bible and was astounded at what I found.
God loves the widow and fatherless.
He has always taken care of them. God’s Old Testament laws made special provision for them, protected them and their land, and gave serious warning to anyone who took advantage of them.
And the New Testament does the same. The very role of deacon came about because of the church needed godly men of integrity who would make sure daily provision was made for the widow. Timothy gave detailed instructions to the early church on how to care for widows.
But even more important, God’s very character is described as the defender of widows and father to the fatherless. The word for “defender” means advocate — one who pleads the cause, renders justice and rescues from wrongdoing.
Caring for the widow and the fatherless is not just what God does; it’s who he is.
And because it’s his character it will never change. God has always cared for the widow and fatherless and he always will. We can count on not only his promises for the widow, but his character.
If you are a widow or single mom, if you’re raising children without a father, be assured that God is for you.
