My grandmother, Iris, grew up in an orphanage. I knew that part. What I didn’t know was the reason she was there– her mother had her out of wedlock and neither her real father or her father who was married to her mother wanted her. In fact, she spent the first 12 years of her life in that orphanage not even knowing she had brothers and sisters. She often said she grew close to the Lord when she would go into the bathroom and pray for someone to come get her and take her out of that place.

She always said, “I’m a child of the King.” Whenever anyone would point out a group of livestock grazing on a hill, she would say, “My Father owns all those cattle.” Her strong faith came out of an identity that was securely rooted in what God said about her, not what her earthly father or anyone else said about her. Her confidence in her final destination of heaven came from trusting the ultimate Promise Keeper. Even when alzheimers took away everything else from her, it never could touch her faith.

If you’ve trusted Christ for salvation, you are equally a child of the King. No one has the right to tell you who you are or to define you by your past or your mistakes, because your Father has spoken the final Word on the matter, and that Word trumps anything and everything else. No one can change that or ever take that away from you.

When you’re all alone in your bathroom, crying out for God for deliverance, He’s there with you. He’s holding you in an embrace so secure that nothing can break it and whispering words in your ear that not the devil, not the world, not even you, can refute. He’s telling you that He’s your Abba and that He’s very fond of you in that moment, in the middle of the mess you’ve made or the mess you’ve found yourself in. Know that you are never beyond His reach and no situation is ever too hopeless.

He specializes in healing broken hearts, mending broken lives, and turning catatrophies into miracles. He sees not who you are, but what you will become. In fact, His promises are so sure, that you can already begin to thank Him for them now. He’s promised that you will be more than you ever dreamed possible and that He can make your life such a testimony of His grace and power that the world will be left without words.

Rest in His love for you and let His love transform your ashes into beauty, your pain into rejoicing, and your sorrow into dancing. Let that love spill out onto those around you and you walk with His feet and reach out with His hands and be His face to them. That’s what a child of the King is.

Amen and amen.