Elias never knew his father. There was no one in his home he could call “Daddy.” His mother was kind to him and to his brother and two sisters, but his father had left them when Elias was too small to remember him. In a family where there is no father, life is difficult.
The fatherless family lived in a small Indian village high in the Andes Mountains. Their tiny hut was made of adobe — bricks of mud dried in the sun. The other boys in Elias’s village were also poor, but most of them had a father to help the family, so they did not understand that Elias’s family was also poor in another way.
Although Elias did not know it, the worst part of his life was not that he was poor. It was not even that he did not have a father. The worst part was that he did not know that there is a God who is a loving Father to any who are born again into His family. He had never heard that “God is love” (1 John 4:88(For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.) (John 4:8)), and that “A father of the fatherless ... is God in His holy habitation” (Psalm 68:55A father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows, is God in his holy habitation. (Psalm 68:5)). Elias thought often about how poor his family was and how hard he and his mother had to work just to have enough to live. No one had told him that God loved him and wanted to show him “the exceeding riches of His grace, in His kindness toward us, through Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:77That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:7)).
All the other children in my village have a toy, Elias thought to himself. Some of my friends have two or three toys, but I have none. His face darkened as he thought about this, and in his heart he said, It is because I have no father ... my father ran away ... he does not love us. Why did my father leave us?
For many years these thoughts troubled poor Elias. His mother was kind and worked very hard, but it was all she could do to provide a little food and a few clothes for her four children.
When Elias was 13 he was sent to Argentina to work in the sugar cane harvest. It was hard work for a young boy of 13, and he was far away from his family. Day after day he had to help burn, cut and gather the long stalks of sugarcane. Snakes were often lurking among the rows of cane. The pay he received was scarcely enough to buy his food. The workers all lived in crowded shelters, and there was much sickness. Elias thought about these lonely, hard days, and again he said in his heart, It is because my father deserted us. He did not love us. We have to suffer now. My mother and I have to work hard and we never have anything nice. Seeds of bitterness were growing in Elias’s heart. He blamed his father for his hard life; he blamed his father that he never had a single toy; he blamed his father that his kind mother had to work so hard for so little. He had never known his father, but now he hated him.
Elias married a young girl when he was still in his teens. He worked hard for his little family, but those feelings of hatred toward his father were still deep in his heart. He told his young wife about his life of hardships and he vowed, “If I ever find my father, I’m going to kill him!” He did not stop to realize that this would be a terrible sin. He did not know that the Bible says, “Every one of us shall give account of himself to God” (Romans 14:1212So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God. (Romans 14:12)).
One day Elias heard that his father was living in a small town several days’ journey from the mountain village where Elias lived. He would have to travel down out of the mountains and into the area where the jungle began. Elias bought a pistol.
He began the long journey, and as he traveled he made his plans. He did not want to do this in secret. No, he wanted all the world to know what his father had done. He planned to meet his father in the central plaza of the town, and he planned just what he would say. He would call out for all to hear, “This is what you deserve for what you have done to my mother, such a fine lady!”
So Elias with his plans of murder reached a small town that was only about one-half-hour’s ride from the place where his father lived. Here he knew of friends who would let him stay with them for the night.
Unknown to Elias, the God who loved him was seeking him. Even though his heart was filled with these terrible plans, the Lord Jesus Christ who came into the world to save sinners from their sins was seeking Elias.
Elias stayed overnight with his friend and told him about his plans. His friend not only begged him to give up his plans but also told him about a loving God who would receive him into His own family if Elias would accept the Lord Jesus as his Saviour. The light of God’s love for him poured into Elias’s sore and sinful heart, and he believed that Jesus had died on the cross for his sins. He was now one of God’s own children. Elias now had a loving, caring Father. What joy for him to find that at the very time he was planning to commit the worst sin of his life, God was reaching out to him in love. To his amazement, he found that when his sins were washed away in the precious blood of Christ, he could forgive his father. He, who had so recently bought a gun, could now put it away. He, who had hated, could now forgive because God had forgiven him for so much.
Elias began his journey back to his family in the mountains with a new peace in his heart — and a new purpose for his life. He told his wife about this loving God who is a Father to the fatherless. He told his mother, his brother and sisters about a Saviour who loved us while we were yet sinners. It is a great joy to know that they also came to the Saviour for forgiveness and found that God brought them into His own family as sons and daughters.
Are you one of God’s sons or daughters?