Poor Annie. When she was two months old, she was left at an orphanage with a note: “Please take good care of our little darling. Her name is Annie. . . . We have left half of a silver locket around her neck and kept the other half so that when we come back for her, you will know that she’s our baby.”
Annie spent the next 11 years with the cruel and horrible Miss Hannigan. A visit by Daddy Warbucks’ staff changed everything. She got to move into a mansion with a maid, a cook, and more servants than she could count.
When Jesus was talking to his disciples right before he was going to be crucified, he knew they would be worried, so he said, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am” (John 14:1-3 NIV).
Sometimes when we can’t see Jesus, we feel like Annie, that we’re left on the doorstep of a horrible place. We have the Holy Spirit inside of us—like Annie’s locket—to let us know we are God’s child. We know that Jesus is preparing our mansion for us, and he is coming to take us back. Just a few verses later, Jesus said, “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you” (John 14:18 NIV).
You won’t be—you aren’t—an orphan.
