Why God Create Orphans

This is one of those questions that has likely torn through the hearts of countless believers and skeptics alike. How can a loving, all-powerful Creator allow innocent children to lose their parents? I’ve grappled with it myself — wrestled with God, shouted in prayer, cried in frustration. If God can do anything, why not stop this kind of suffering? Why didn’t He stop it in the first place? Orphans, of all people, seem like the purest victims of the brokenness in our world.

To start unraveling this mystery, let me say this: I’m not here with a neatly wrapped answer. I think part of exploring something so painful and profound is admitting the limits of human understanding. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that truth and comfort don’t always come from having answers. Sometimes they come from sitting in the questions, letting them break us, and discovering where God meets us in that brokenness. This question, for me, is one of those places.

Suffering from a Biblical Perspective

The Bible doesn’t shy away from suffering. In fact, it’s full of it. From the very beginning, we see a fallen world where tragedy is not the exception — it’s the rule. Yet woven through Scripture is this persistent theme: God is with the brokenhearted. Psalms 68:5 calls God the “Father to the fatherless.” That’s not just a benign title; it’s a promise. God acknowledges orphans specifically, as if to say, “I see you. I haven’t forgotten you. I will be the Parent you lost.” In James 1:27, we even find this: “Religion that is pure and faultless before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction.” In other words, He not only calls Himself their Father but also calls us, His followers, to show that same fatherly love.

You see, while God grieves over suffering, He’s always working in it. The Apostle Paul says in Romans 8:28, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.” That’s a hard verse to swallow when we see children abandoned, starving, or left to fend for themselves — but it reveals something crucial about God: He doesn’t waste suffering.

Free Will and a Fallen World

If we dig a little deeper, we hit the question of free will. Why would God create a world where orphans even exist in the first place? It’s the classic debate: If He’s all-powerful and cares about people, why allow their choices — or the broken systems of the world — to harm children so deeply?

Here’s the hard pill. God created humans with free will, knowing full well it would lead to death, evil, and even orphans. He allowed it because without free will, love itself would be impossible. For love to be real, it must be chosen, and for it to be chosen, there must be the possibility of rejecting it. This freedom led to Adam and Eve’s “fall” and, by extension, the brokenness we see today: wars, famines, diseases, abuses — and yes, orphans.

Now, I realize that can sound deeply unsatisfying. But consider this: If God were to wipe out suffering entirely, it would mean wiping away what makes us human. There would be no capacity for love, no struggle toward goodness, no need for redemption. Without brokenness, there’d be no story to tell.

Beauty in the Brokenness

I can’t help but think of the Japanese art of kintsugi, where broken pottery is mended with gold, turning the cracks into something beautiful. It’s a stunning metaphor for what God does in suffering. I’ve had friends who’ve spent years working with orphans — mentoring them, adopting them, loving them fiercely when the world didn’t seem to care. It’s changed those orphans’ lives, yes, but here’s the thing: it’s also changed my friends. They’ve found immeasurable purpose in stepping in for these children. The suffering didn’t disappear, but in God’s hands, beauty emerged through it.

This brings me to an incredible old saying: God doesn’t call the qualified; He qualifies the called. Often, the people most deeply impacted by these questions — the ones torn apart by the existence of orphans — are the very people He uses to help heal them. Have you noticed how many adoption agencies, orphanages, and charities have roots in Christian faith? It’s no coincidence. Throughout history, it’s been Christians who’ve responded most profoundly to the call to defend the fatherless. Maybe, just maybe, the grief we feel when we look at orphans doesn’t mean God failed — it means He’s nudging us to step in and do something about it.

What Literature and History Say

I think of Charles Dickens, who was practically obsessed with the plight of orphans. In Oliver Twist, he doesn’t paint a rosy picture of their suffering; he shows the Dickensian horror of it all. Dickens himself had a painful childhood, which sparked his compassion for the downtrodden. Maybe his suffering, much like the suffering he wrote about, wasn’t in vain. It gave him eyes to see the brokenness of the world and the courage to scream against its injustices.

Even in mythology and folklore, orphans seem to symbolize resilience born from deep loss. Think of Hercules, cursed by the gods and effectively orphaned, fighting for redemption; or Cinderella, who transforms from despair to triumph. These stories echo a deeper truth, one that resonates across cultures: suffering — even the suffering of orphans — isn’t the end of the story.

Where Is God in the Pain?

I recently read something from C.S. Lewis’s The Problem of Pain. He wrote, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” That hit me. God isn’t distant from the agony of orphans, watching from a cloud with indifference — He stepped into it Himself. Jesus, abandoned and tortured on the cross, cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46). In that moment, Jesus experienced the ultimate abandonment so that we could know we are never truly alone.

And maybe that’s part of it. God allows suffering, yes. But He doesn’t leave us to face it alone. He enters into it with us, comforting us, weeping with us, and working to transform it.

What Do We Do?

So maybe the better question isn’t why God allows orphans, but how we’re supposed to respond. Isaiah 1:17 gives us this instruction: “Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.” Embracing the role God gave us means recognizing that we don’t get to sit back and wait for Him to fix everything. We are part of the solution.

If you’ve ever stood face to face with a child clinging to someone else’s coat for hope, you know what I mean. God works through people. He works through us. Maybe the existence of orphans is less about God allowing it and more about Him calling each of us to step in and show what love looks like.

A Hard, Beautiful Mystery

I don’t know if I’ll ever completely understand this. But maybe that’s okay. I know that God is good, even when life isn’t. I know that He uses brokenness to create beauty and gives meaning to things that seem utterly senseless. And I know that, while this world is full of suffering, we are called to fight for love — to be God’s hands and feet, especially for the most vulnerable. Maybe that’s where we’ll find the answer. Not in explaining the “why,” but in answering the deeper “what now?”

So yes, orphans exist in a world where God reigns. But they don’t exist outside His love or without His purpose. And while I don’t know why He allows such heartbreak, I do know this much: He sees them. He calls them His. And He calls us to do the same.

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