According to a quick google search, today, there are approximately 153 million orphans in the world.
153 million. 153,000,000.
If we were to line up those individuals and ask them to hold hands they would stretch around the equator more than 6 times! That number is horrifyingly large.
So.many.children.
In his book Radical David Platt said,
“We learned that orphans are easier to ignore before you know their names. They are easier to ignore before you see their faces. It is easier to pretend they're not real before you hold them in your arms. But once you do, everything changes."
I'm just one person. You are just one person. What can we really do to make any kind of dent in this overwhelmingly large problem? It's a natural question, but...it's the wrong question.
We see in Scripture, when Jesus walked the Earth as the divine God-man, he stopped for the one. Time and time again he stopped for the one.
I think of the woman with the chronic bleeding condition in Matthew 9. She had been bleeding for 12 years! Can you imagine? She had to of been severely anemic, no doubt. Weak, shunned, barren (I would imagine her reproductive system was not functioning in a healthy way), pale, perhaps judged and labeled "lazy" by her neighbors or husband because of the intense fatigue that comes with severe blood loss.
She needed a transfusion! And she knew it.
Lets read the interaction she had with our Jesus who sees the one...
Matthew 9:20-22
"Just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind him (Jesus) and touched the edge of his cloak. She said to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed. (the transfusion)." Jesus turned and saw her. “Take heart, daughter,” he said, “your faith has healed you.” And the woman was healed at that moment."
(emphasis added)
Jesus turned and saw her. He saw her. He was on the way to heal the synagogue leader's daughter who had just died.
He had plans. I have plans. You have plans.
He had a mission he was on. I have a mission I am on. You have a mission you are on.
He was doing good. I am involved in good things. You are doing good things.
BUT....He was open to being interrupted by this one, needy woman. He stopped. He turned. He saw her. He cared. He even called her daughter! He healed her.
For whatever reason I still can't seem to wrap my head around, Jesus has chosen His people (you and I) to be his hands and feet on this Earth. He carries out his mission via us! (Why, Lord? We trust you Lord! Don't let us miss this, Lord!)
God's Word is explicit about his love, concern, and care for the fatherless. As His children, we are to be about the things he is about.
We say this little quote in our house often: People matter. Why? Because God made people in his image. The more time I spend in God's Word the more I see God's heart for the forgotten, the "nobodies", the least of these.
The plight of a child who has been orphaned, if left an orphan, is one of destitution and exploitation and victimization. We, can change that for some of these children. One precious, little face at a time. It will be hard work because it is redemptive work; 100% of the time orphanhood will birth from brokenness. That brokenness will have implications in a little heart. Adopting all of someone, the beauty and the trauma, will be so worth it because God is worth it and that is exactly what he has done for us
. Loving God and loving others for his glory is what we were made for!
"It's important to realize that we adopt not because we are rescuers. No. We adopt because we are rescued." -David Platt
Reflections:
Who do you want me to love on today, Lord?
Am I willing to be interrupted for the sake of another today for the glory of Jesus?
Am I open to adopt the brokenness of another as my own?
Do I understand the adoption I have received from Christ?
A deeper dive into Scripture that speaks to the tender place in God's heart towards the orphan:
Psalm 68:5 “Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation.”
James 1:27 “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”
Hosea 14:3 “For in You the fatherless find compassion.”
Isaiah 1:17 “Learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.”
Psalm 82:3 “Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed.”
Deuteronomy 10:18 “He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing.”
John 14:18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.”
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