According to the dictionary the definition of the word Orphan is this:
Orphan (n): a child deprived by death of one or usually both parents; one deprived of some protection or advantage
I've had the privilege of spending some time with three precious children who have the status of orphan (but prayerfully not for long)! No one really knows their story other than a few bits and pieces. No one knows the exact reason why they are orphans, their exact birthdays, their medical history, etc. A child doesn't necessarily become an orphan because their parent's have passed away. Sometimes they become an orphan because their parent's have no money to take care of them or because they don't want to take care of them and for many other possible reasons but the fact still remains that they are indeed orphans just like at one point we (as believers) were orphans.
There are approximately 132 million orphans world wide and 95% of them are over the age of 5 years old. It used to be when I thought of an orphan I always thought of them being light years away. It was out of sight and basically out of mind. Every now and again I would hear of orphans and be sad but quickly move on with life as usual. In all reality I never knew of an orphan or so I thought. We don't use that term per say here in the US. We use words like foster child but in other countries they have orphanages for the orphans but in all reality they are the same thing. They are children who don't have parent's to love on them, kiss them, hug them when they cry, teach them about life and tell them of their worth!
I listened to a sermon called Adopted for Life by Dr. Russell Moore. The sermon was based out of Romans 8:12-17:
12So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 13For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry,"Abba! Father!" 16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
He talks about the orphanage in which he adopted two of his sons. He talks about the eerie silence upon entering the orphanage. Babies (if you have/had one you know this) cry out because they want something; they want to be held, they are hungry, they need a diaper change, etc. but after a while (could be a long while for some) they stop if no one comes to their aid. They learn to comfort themselves. Many of us never had to learn this technique of soothing. We have a mom and dad that ran to our side the moment we made a sound. They came to wrap us up in their arms and tell us it's all ok. I do this often with Isaiah. He is relentless when it comes to crying it out...he won't have it. He will work himself into such a frenzy that I can't take it, I have to go get him. I pick him up, I wrap him tightly in my arms and I tell him that it's ok because momma is here now. I whisper over and over that I am here until he calms down and eventually falls asleep snuggled in my arms. Orphans don't get this luxury but as Believers in Christ we do this very same thing. As stated in Romans we cry out Abba! Father! because the spirit of Christ is crying out through us and we scream out because we know we will be heard and we do so because of our adoption through Christ.
As believers we have become adopted through Christ. We have become His children. He loves us, he comforts us and he never leaves us. I often hear people say or comment to adoptive parent's, "Good for you" or "Those children are so lucky to be with you" and one thing rings the same in every comment and that is "you"...like we as adoptive parent's have done this noble act worthy of praise. I have to say in the beginning I thought part of my responsibility was to rescue these children but I too missed the boat on this one. In Dr. Moore's sermon he says this...and I may not quote it exactly but you get the jist. He say's, "Adoption is not a charity, a program or another initiative; we (believers) care for orphans because we were orphaned, we love the fatherless because we were fatherless and we care about adoption because we were adopted." This should be our motivation behind adoption.
The moment you become/became a believer in Christ you were adopted. We are now His children, we have a Father, we are no longer orphans. Many people often say, "I'm not called to that" whether it's to adopt, to be a full-time missionary or whatever it is that stretches us beyond our comforts and forces us to fully rely on Christ. I have to ask myself and others when we say this as believers....are we really believers, do we get it, have we missed the boat or are we just that selfish? We are clearly called to certain task once we become fellow heirs with Christ but often (including me) we run from these things because they aren't what we envisioned for our lives, they stretch us, scare us and make us rely solely and dependently on Christ and Him alone.
But here's the deal...we weren't promised when we became believers that life would all of sudden become easy. I hear the words "I'm blessed" used to the point that it has no true meaning anymore. We respond like robots when someone ask us how life is..."I'm blessed." Well great but what do you mean by that. Do you mean you are blessed because you are no longer an orphan or because you lost your job or your child or your home? I can tell you honestly when we lost our first child I didn't walk around saying "I'm blessed" because I had the wrong idea of what being blessed really meant! Being a Christian didn't mean I was no longer going to suffer but instead it means the Spirit prompts us to see and recognize our own dependence and desperation and to cry out and scream out knowing we will be heard (Dr. Russel Moore).
We are here because God pursued us, he went looking for us and he found us. We have been given a new identity in Christ as children and fellow heirs with Christ. Because of this we should be the first people above anyone else that welcomes fatherless children into our homes, to allow them to know a real love for the first time in their lives, to allow them to know their worth as a child, to bring them to the foot of the cross and allow them to find a new life in and through our Savior.
James 1:27Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
