The Orphan of God

After examining an excerpt from Epictetus’ Discourses, I have recently meditated on a specific notion. Suppose God in human form announces Himself to you at your home. He abruptly arrives without notification and knocks upon your door. You naturally permit Him to enter, but God has not visited alone. A handsome child stands before God facing you; God’s hands settled on the adolescent’s shoulders. 

​God speaks to you, “I come requesting your service. Before me stands an orphan who knows not from whence they came nor where they may go. I task you with their life. Nourish their body, teach them right from wrong, and guide their soul so that they may reach their greatest potential. I give you jurisdiction over their life; will you neglect this responsibility?”

Do you turn God away? Will you conjure an excuse and deny God’s prayer? Will you accept God’s terms but disregard the importance of this duty once He departs?

The devout disciple will honor God’s request by accepting the seed He’s given them. Through water and tending, the kernel will grow mightier than the neighboring weeds and become like a towering sunflower in a field, peering over its counterparts. With tedious care, the sunflower reaches its apex and is reaped into His kingdom fulfilling God’s will.

So why do you continue to turn away God’s orphan? Did not God give you your own life to administer? Do you not comprehend that your soul knows not from whence it came nor where it may go? Were you not an orphaned spirit? Has not God given you a body and mind to nourish and to teach right from wrong?

God gave you the responsibility to look after this body, so why do you fight His will by succumbing to unhealthy practices? Why do you not indulge in self-care? Why do you recite curses and condemn the gift that God has provided you? Why do you purposefully harm the vessel that transports the only soul you have ever truly known? Are you not spitting in the face of God by neglecting His child?

Your orphaned soul was granted a life by God. Therefore, do not pity the body nor the mind that has been given to you. Do not subject yourself to pain nor neglect. Nourish yourself mentally and physically. Seek to learn right from wrong through blessings and error. God will lead you to the peak of your potential. By choosing to nurture the body and mind delivered to you, you are fulfilling God’s will; but by carelessly conditioning the body and mind to negligence, you are opposing God’s will and your struggle will continue.