Orphans should be lifted up and cared for every day but today is special. Today is Orphan Sunday. Globally it is a day when churches have special services geared toward the fatherless. A single day when the focus can be on those who we are called to care for, the one's who have no voice of their own. I wrote my first Orphan Sunday blog post three years ago. I can't promise you many new things that you've not already seen me write at this point. There is only so much I can say on the subject without repeating myself.
With that said I do want to say this;I both love and hate this day. This is a day I wait for every year, eagerly countind down days and praying leading up to it. A time when I can lift up the fatherless and know that my brothers and sisters around the world are doing the same. There is something incredibly unifying and powerful when you know that you aren't alone in praying for a need. This morning our middle schoolers prayed for those children who need families. Most of these students don't understand why Terry told them that I probably knew more about today than he did. I don't know that any of them but my niece know that what a day like today means to me and why it means what it does.
I also hate this day. I long for the day when there will be no more orphans. When there won't be a child in this world who doesn't have a family. The reason the day even exists is because there is a need. Take care of the need and the day won't be celebrated any longer. So as much as I wait for this day every year I cannot wait until the first November Sunday when Orphan Sunday no longer exists because there are no children without families to call their own. Maybe that will happen this side of Heaven and maybe it won't.
I know that until that day comes my God is the Father to the fatherless and He hears the cries of those who lift them up to Him.
This morning's sermon was on God's love and knowing God's love. Most of my morning was spent sitting in a church pew pondering over the fact that this love that conquers all is a love that these children need more than anything else. They need God more than they need parents because those parents will mess up. Much as they try those parents can't heal old hurt but the love of God can. His love can break down walls put up for protection. His love can soften a heart that has known nothing but abandonment. His love is the only one that won't fail or forsake them. God cannot and will not abandon them. He is always faithful and always good. A parent can try their hardest but at some point they will mess up because they are human. God cannot mess up, he cannot make a mistake, if He did He wouldn't be God. We can seek to love these children with all our might but our love is only going to go so far because it is only designed to go to a certain point. We are not meant to be the ultimate love, even as a parent, that is for God and Him alone.
I wrote a rather lengthy post on the gospel and orphan care last month and it can be found under that title so I won't go into detail again but I will say this-God adopts us as children when we can give Him nothing, do nothing good, and are worthless. What we become as His children are beloved heirs to His kingdom who through the Holy Spirit can do far more than we imagine as God works through us. Adoption works much the same way. These are children who can offer nothing but need everything, they matter to God so they should matter to us.
I tend to laugh at those who feel like their lives are ending when they reach thirty as if reaching that age is like being cursed. I suppose that is because for me it is like a magic number. Thirty is the minimum age requirement to adopt from China. I've been counting down the years for roughly seven years now. Every Orphan Sunday means I'm only two months from being one year closer to thirty. Come January 20th that count will be four more years. 1460 more days until I'm thirty from that day. While I do not yet meet the other requirements needed, marriage being the other big hurdle, thirty is a starting point.
So while I wait I pray. I pray for 147 million children who need to know love. I pray for families who will be called or have been called to adopt and are stuck in the maze of red tape waiting to bring home sons and daughters and brothers and sisters. I pray for the next generation of young people who will be called to this specific cause. Christians everywhere are called to speak up for the orphan. Some are called to do more.
But I also pray for myself. That I will wait well and I won't waste that time. That I can fight the many feelings that such waiting invokes because not all of them are good. But mostly I pray that if and when the time comes that I can be the father that I should, lead as I should, and show my children that as much as I love them there is one who loves them far more.
"Defend the cause of the fatherless..."Isaiah 1:17
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