The First Voice

My father died when I was seven years old.

I remember standing beside my grandmother when she received the phone call telling her that he had been murdered. I could hear the anguish in her voice. She was heartbroken. Seeing her cry made the reality sink in for me. I realized I would never see my father again.

Looking back now, that moment was the first major event that changed the course of my life. My father’s absence created a path that shaped many of the decisions I would later make. I often wonder how different my life might have been if he had lived.

But something else happened that day. 

After my father died, I remember hearing a voice within me say: "Your father on earth is gone now, but I am your Father in heaven. I will take care of you." 

At the time, I didn’t know what to make of it. I wondered if it was simply my mind trying to comfort itself. Was I talking to myself? Was it my way of coping with loss?

But the voice was real. 

And it never left. 

Throughout my life that same voice would guide me, warn me, and teach me. What began as a moment of comfort would become the beginning of a relationship that would shape the rest of my journey. 

Looking back now, I believe that even in that painful moment, God was already revealing Himself to me. 

Psalm 68:5 “A father of the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in His holy habitation.”