Are we orphaned when our parents die?

I was flipping channels the other day and I came across an episode of the old Golden Girls television show.

In this episode, one of the characters, Blanche, had to deal with the passing of her father.  At the end of the episode, as she was walking away from his burial site at the cemetery, she said, "I am nobody's little girl anymore."

I was reminded of what it is like when your last parent dies.  It sort of makes you feel like an orphan.  But, curiously, my first reaction to Blanche's comment, was to disagree with her.

We do not cease being our parents' child, or "little girl," just because they have died. I think it is because so much of who we are comes from our parents, due not simply to genetics, but because of all of the other ways we have developed under them.

We continue to carry a part of them with us in our mannerisms, the way we think and process the things of life, and so much more.  I have noticed over the years that vocal intonations can be very pronounced and passed on from parent to child.

The passing on of many of these things is not intentional, of course.  They are just sort of picked up.

Wouldn't it be something to say that Christians inherit influences from Jesus because we have likewise absorbed HIS traits, since we are so closely united to him?

Let's say that spending time with him has taught us how to be self-sacrificing, forgiving, prudent, charitable and selfless.

Yes, I think Blanche got it wrong, because even though our earthly parents have passed, we are still children of God, baptized into his family for all eternity. 

We can never be orphaned when we have a Father in heaven who continues to love us as he does.  After all, like our earthly parents, the Father created us, in them, in his image. 

That is a bond that can never be broken, not by time, nor by death, because, as we just experienced in the resurrection of Jesus, our earthly death is never the end.

Happy Easter!

Janet Cassidy
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