To the Child Who Was Abandoned

“A father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows, is God in his holy habitation.”

Psalm 68:5

My son, my daughter, I know the weight of growing up, or even of living today as an adult, feeling the absence of someone who should have stayed by your side. A father who left without explanation, a mother who never knew how to love properly, a promise of care that never came to be fulfilled. That leaves a deep mark, the kind that shows up on no medical exam.

I don't take that person's place by pretending the pain they caused never happened; I won't erase your story. I hold a place of my own, a different one: that of a father to whoever was left orphaned of care, even while having a father and mother alive and physically present. I take on this role with complete seriousness, not as a backup comfort for when nothing else works.

You can come into my lap without fear of being left again, without fear of becoming one more abandonment on your list. I have no record of abandoning what is mine. I stay. I always stay, in every circumstance. And I want to, little by little, rewrite inside you what it truly means to have a father who never leaves.