Some children are become orphans when their parents die. Others become functional orphans when their parents divorce. Other people become orphans as a result of their parents emotional unavailability. Anyone who has been neglected, abandoned, or abused by people who were important in their life will appreciate what it is like to be an orphan. It is a painful and lonely experience.
Orphans doubt their ability to sustain intimate relationships and find it difficult to trust others.
Experiences of abandonment leave us full of loneliness, fear and self-loathing. Jesus understood the acute pain that orphans experience. In this text he responds to that deep pain with a promise of relationship. You will not be without family because I will come to you. In Jesus we see most clearly that God is attentive and available to us when we feel abandoned or neglected.