The recent story about a family being stopped in their quest to adopt a small handicapped Russian child caught my eye.
http://news.yahoo.com/mom-loses-russian-girl-weeks-adoption-150709061–abc-news-topstories.html
{In case the yahoo link fails here is the title: ‘Mom’ Loses Russian Girl Weeks From Adoption}
This is not an article about the fairness of justness on the part of the Russians nor is it an article on the expectations of Americans and how they feel entitled. It is an article on adoption.
It has been said that most prospective parents want to bring home little babies from the orphanages and there is quite a demand for those little ones. Nothing against those people for wanting to raise children from the beginning as it may make it easier for them to adjust to being parents; yet there are so many older children who have spent years in the system waiting for someone to take them home.
Taking older children home is not cute and easy as they have learned something from their experiences and they know you are not their real parents but they need a place to call home and people to call family just like the little babies do.
It is easy to get involved in tragedies like school shootings because they are transitory for all, save those who lost someone, and soon a new tragedy will push a school ‘s loss out of one’s mind. Meanwhile another tragedy of sorts continues on day after day and for the children involved it is not transitory but stays with them each day.
This tragedy concerns the forgotten children of the nation. they live in large homes, institutions or other buildings designed to accommodate large numbers hoping that one day a set of prospective parents will select them and take them to their home.
The Bible tells us in James 1:27 that looking after orphans is very important in God’s eyes. The verse reads:
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
This does not necessarily mean that all Christians need to recklessly go out and adopt children. That act needs prospective parents to lean upon God’s wisdom and guidance to ensure that they get the right child and that they are prepared and ready to handle the responsibility of raising a child.
It does mean that the Church needs to be the leader in doing what is right, what is of God and stop pursuing things of this world. The Church has a reputation and it is not always a good one. For some that reputation is that the organized church always has its hand out begging for money. That is not a good reputation to have when the organized church says it follows the all-powerful God.
The church should be leading all people in doing what is right, what is good and what is honest, just, wise, merciful, forgiving, discipline and love. Warehousing children until they grow up is not a smart thing. It should be a temporary action.
Sadly, some church members feel that to draw unbelievers into the congregation they need large church structures, modern lingo, participation in worldly activities and so on. Such ideas fall short. The Bible tells us that the church is to ‘lift Jesus higher and He will draw all men unto Him.’
What better way to lift Jesus higher and bring attention to His love and compassion than by taking care of the orphans (and widows). The unchurched world needs to see that God cares, so do orphans and they see that care and compassion through the actions of those who claim to follow Jesus.
Taking care of the less fortunate does not need to be publicized by the doers, the word will get out. Jesus will make sure of that as long as the help is done honestly and not with ulterior motives.
Take time this week to see what God wants you to do for those older children in orphanages. Contributing to school shooting victims is easy as that is the popular thing to do at the moment. Helping less sensational victims is not because the press and community support is not present to offer publicity or aid.
But then, the church does not do good for publicity; it does good to the less fortunate because it is obeying God. The church does good works not for salvation, we have that in Jesus’ sacrifice.
We do good because it is what God wants us to do. To fight evil we do not use evil but good.
theologyarchaeology 