Written by Harajana Umar Ragada
Imagine a big mango tree with many branches, leaves and sweet fruits feasted upon by her children, while also enjoying her cool shade that comes with a soft breeze, covering their heads from the scorching sun…
All of a sudden, someone cuts her off from her root. She falls down weeping, wondering how her children would survive without her, while they drink their tears day and night, searching for food and shelter, with little or no one to help them.
This is what happens when a father dies, leaving behind his family. At first, so many people come to sympathize and condole with them, with sugar-coated promises. His family is given hope that at least someone will be there for them even when the head of the family is no more. But what happens afterwards?
The widow(s) and her/their children are left to wander in the streets, searching for food, shelter, job, to sustain them. Only a few are lucky enough to find help from relatives or friends in one way or the other. It is scary how fathers keep dying on a daily basis, leaving their families behind.
Most people nowadays only do things for the sake of someone that is alive, someone they know they can gain something from. As soon as he is no more, they forget everything about him or his family.
As parents, I want to advise us to build a future in and for our children, because we don’t know what tomorrow holds. Help them discover their talents and work on building them. As a husband, invest in your wife, for she will never abandon your children. And she might be the only person to take care of them when you are no more.
Have you ever wondered what most orphans are going through? Most of them have little or nothing to put in their breadbaskets but they can’t ask anyone for it, because they were brought up in such a way that they can keep their family’s secret, so that people will not look down on them. Even if they ask some people, they might not help them out and probably go about telling other people or use the children’s helplessness to their advantage especially the girl child.
I want to urge us to please help the orphans with food, clothes, and other items we can give out in order to gain manifolds of reward from the Almighty. You don’t have to go far, look around your neighborhood and start from there. Some people would rather cook plenty food and throw it away in the morning than to give someone in need which is very bad.
Though things are hard these days, but there is no harm in giving out the little you can afford, you never know what it will mean to them.
May the Almighty ease our affairs. Amen.