Deeply rooted in our being is a need
for belonging. We long for community and
grow and develop through it. As we
journey with Christ we learn and come to understand that our belonging is found
firstly in Him who has set us free. It
is then through our community that we find our footing and hear our call.
The motivation for believers to come
alongside orphaned children is quite simple.
There is nothing complicated or manipulative about inviting a person to
become your child. Through orphan care
ministries and adoption we reflect God’s love as our Father. In response to our adoption as His children,
we pour out our best likeness of His love on others. It is the love of a parent,
even the adoptive parent, which is simple and pure. Not everyone is meant to physically and
legally bring a child into their family. There are, however, countless ways
that we have all been called to be a part of restoring hope to the orphan. First we must find our way in grasping the
concept that we were once adopted.
Secondly, as a result of our being adopted as children of God, we have a
responsibility in how we embrace orphans in our world. And lastly, we as we begin our engagement in
ministry to orphans, we must search to understand the many implications that
result from our efforts.
Part 1
At the foundations of our call to care for
the orphan we are reminded that we were adopted as children of God. 1 John 3:1 says, “See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children,
and that is what we are!” Imagine
yourself young and helpless. Imagine
yourself not knowing where you are going.
Imagine not knowing who was taking you there or if you could even trust
that person. Imagine not having ever
experienced hope. Imagine that if, every
time you did receive that glimmer of hope, it was extinguished before you could
touch it. Imagine, then, a person
standing in front of you holding a gift with the word “hope” written on
it. That person then opens the gift,
takes out the hope, holds onto it and turns and walks away. This is exactly what we do each time we see a
child in need and do not share the love of Christ nor invite them into His
family. We are not all meant or equipped
to adopt or foster children, but we are all meant to love and care for
them. As Tom Davis explains in response
to our spiritual adoption, “Our gratefulness ought to be a wellspring that
pours out the same kind of freedom and joy to others (Davis, p. 63).”
Elizabeth
Styffe puts it beautifully: “When God adopted us, He made us part of His permanent
family, so we would no longer be orphans.
Even though we were not His bloodline, He grafted us in through
adoption, giving us permanent security and a family, meeting our need to
belong. His adoption of us is a legal
process that cost Him everything. It
gives us an inheritance and the right to call Him Abba, or “Father”(Styffe).”[i]
We must feel the intensity of the kind of love that God bestowed
upon us through His sacrifice of His son.
Our call to respond to the plight of the needy isn’t an option. It is not to be considered something nice
that we do or a kind gesture. To neglect
the call is to deprive the orphan of hope and justice. To disregard the orphan and not welcome them
into your home, to not help them when they are hungry and in rags, to not hear
them when they are crying out to us, lonely and scared, is to not have the love
of God abide in us. For 1 John 3:16-17 says,
“But whoever has material possessions, and sees his brother in need, but shuts
up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?”
Davis
explains, “Genuine, believing faith manifests itself in tangible ways when we
care for those who are poor, suffering, and fatherless or motherless (Styffe, p.63).” When you come right down to it, the very
basics of Christianity are found in the action of feeding, clothing and
treating the fatherless as members of your very own family.
If
this is true then, and we believe wholeheartedly that this is at the base of
us living out our faith, and that the love of God is contingent on it; then why
are we not more involved and why are there still so many suffering? I believe the reason rests in fear. Fear of the unknown. Fear of change. Fear of what it may cost them. Fear of leaving their comfortable lifestyles
behind only to welcome great challenge. I can’t count the times I have heard
people talk about wanting to do mission work but hesitate out of fear for the
challenge. I also can’t count the times
I have heard people say that they wouldn't have stepped out if they had known
how difficult it would be, but that they were glad they did. Fear cripples us. And yet, if we believe our salvation story,
then we should also believe that we are called to “fear not... (Isaiah 41:10).” We need to ask ourselves: would God place a
desire or calling on our hearts to engage in ministry to orphans if he was not
going to be in it? What if our
neglecting to take action mean depriving even ourselves of the joy that He
desires for us?
Let’s
take the example of the story found in Luke chapter 7. Here we find Jesus gathering with a group of
Pharisees over a meal. In comes a woman
of questionable background. The woman
weeping on the feet of Jesus, dries her tears with her hair and then pours a perfume
worth a year’s wages onto his feet.
Jesus then demonstrates His all-inclusive love: he recognizes the
sincerity of her devotion and forgives her of her sins. Simon is grappled with the situation. As a Pharisee, someone whose religious
occupation is to be kind and compassionate, he was challenged. It would have
been common practice to throw out the woman as if she was vermin. Instead, what was to be avoided was
embraced. Simon was so focused on living
his holy, pleasing and safe life that he missed tremendous opportunity to
receive the blessing of sharing the grace of God with others. Davis explains that the method to overcoming
such fear is by “making other’s pain a priority in our lives. People are eternal; fear is not. We change
our lifestyles and start to give sacrificially of our time, energy, and
resources to the fatherless (Davis, p.119).”
There
are countless examples in the Scriptures that highlight the faithfulness and
omnipotence of God as our father. There
are also several examples of people adopting orphans into their families on
scary terms. The lives of Moses and
Ester are just a couple of examples.
Moses
was born at a time when his death, along with the deaths of every other Israelite
newborn son was ordered. His rescue
would have been controversial to say the least.
Not only would Israelite mothers mourning the loss of their children
envy Moses’ Mother who was then allowed to nurse her baby, even after trying to
hide him, but Pharaoh’s approval of his daughter raising an Israelite would
have caused quite a bit of tension.
God’s hand was on Moses’ life as his own mother was even allowed to
raise him. Later, when the boy was
older, his mother brought him back to Pharaoh's daughter, who adopted him as
her own son (Ex.2). His life was
protected through the provision of an adoptive family so that his life could
fulfil the purpose for which God had designed it. Imagine, what would have happened if
Pharaoh’s daughter hadn’t been compassionate towards the abandoned child? Was it one of those pivotal moments where the
consequence for disobedience is absolute?
Or, would he have had a stand-in if she hadn’t have come through, or if
Pharaoh hadn’t have agreed to it? Would
it have changed the course of history? We will never know. What we do know is that there are
consequences to sin. And disobedience is
sin. And sometimes, the consequences
have a deep effect on others.
We see
the same kind of powerful result when Mordecai is faithful in hearing his call
to adopt Esther after she became parentless.
God had given Esther a kind of beauty that would be noticed by
royalty. A kind of beauty that would
help set things in motion for the lives of the Jewish people of their community
to be saved. When you line up all of the
circumstances that fell into play for Ester to help unveil Haman’s wicked
scheme, if Mordecai had not have been willing to adopt her as his own, it
wouldn’t have happened the way it did.
Again, God called, he created the circumstances for greatness to happen,
but if the believer hadn’t followed through, it may not have happened the way
it did. And the very lives of the Jews
could have been at stake.
In Exodus we
saw Moses’ life was spared and he was adopted so that it could be used to bring
the Jews freedom. In the book of Esther, a beautiful girl, adopted by her
cousin after her parents' death, became a queen, and God used her to bring
deliverance to the Jewish people. In the New Testament, Jesus Christ was
conceived through the Holy Spirit instead of through the seed of a man (Matthew 1:18). He was “adopted” and raised by His mother's husband, Joseph,
who took Jesus as his own child. God
loves the orphan. He cares for them and
he makes plans for them. Their lives are
valuable beyond measure, as are yours and mine.
God’s character reflects care for
orphans. “He defends the cause of the
fatherless and the widow (Deut. 10:18).” Scripture is chalk full of references
where we are reminded of His concern towards the parentless. Psalms 68:5-6a tells
us that He is “father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his
holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in
families.”
No comments:
Post a Comment