Orphan Sunday. His Call. Our Response.

As written by Daniel...

When I first heard about Orphan Sunday several months ago, I knew that I wanted to write a blog post bringing out its awareness.  I began to pray about what I should say and what I needed to talk about.  Can I just tell you that I stink at this stuff.  I’ll be the first to tell you my grammar is not the best, and it’s hard for me to put down in words what I am truly thinking and what I am feeling.  However, that being said, I am not trying to impress anyone.  I am only trying to do what I feel like I am being called to do, which is to share my wife and my story and bring awareness to the estimated 153 MILLION ORPHANS around the globe. So anyways, here I go, hang on…

First, I would like to say this post is not a post with its theme being that everyone needs to go out and adopt.  I just wanted to share my adoption story.  When I accepted Christ when I was younger, I was then adopted as one of God’s children.  You see, adoption is an act of God whereby he makes us members of His family.  John 1:12 puts it like this, “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God-“.  Wow, do you ever think about that? As Christians, we are CHILDREN of God.  Children of God, not cousins or brothers or those distant relatives you occasionally talk to, but children of God.  What’s awesome about that is God could have saved us without the privileges of adoption into his family, for he could have forgiven our sins and given us lawful right before Him without making us His children.  What amazing love God has shown me.  Romans 8:14, “because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.”  Come on y’all! Does that not fire you up!?!

I thought a few months ago that my adoption story started only when we began to adopt our daughter, Paisley.  Man was I wrong. I’ve since realized that I was the orphan who had no hope. I was that orphan who was thirsty and hungry and had no food or water.  I was that orphan who was spiritually dead. I was that orphan who was enslaved with sin.  Now I look at the cross.  Now the God of hope fills me with all joy and peace. Now I feast on the bread of life and drink living water that is Christ Jesus.  I was then dead but now I am promised eternal life and because of the cross, because Christ died for me therefore forgiving my sins. I am washed in the blood of the Lamb. I praise God for that! What love he shows and gives us.

So why adoption for me?  Because I was adopted first. My challenge for you is to pray about what God is calling you to do for orphans.  I don’t know what that is for you and your family, but what I do know is that it isn’t sit back and do nothing.  That Bible clearly states God’s call for orphan care. Start with James 1:19-27 and verses like Isaiah 1:17. What if we as followers of Christ began to stop using the Bible as a guide for when we need to be uplifted and only picking and choosing the things that we want to apply to our lives.  Instead, we should enter into these stories of the Bible that will shape our lives to be more like Christ.

I like how our agency puts the call of orphan care.  If you can’t adopt, foster; if you can’t foster, sponser; if you can’t sponser, volunteer; if you can’t volunteer, donate; if you can't donate, educate; and honestly above all, pray. And that is what I am asking you to do. Get into the word of God and pray about what He would like you to do to help out those 153 millions orphans around the world.

One Less.