~
There is not a day
that goes by that I do not think about adoption. It could be that my daughter
is a visual reminder of how adoption has touched our family. It may be that
adoption is a deeper calling within my role of Mothering. It may be that so
often when all is quiet in the house and the world around slumbers and a silent
home affords a moment for my own thoughts, I think on the vast number of
displaced children we have in this world, I'm told there are millions, a numerous
gathering of little faces, tiny hands, pattering feet, and expectant innocence.
Millions of names, children unique and precious yet alone in the tossing
current of an overwhelming statistic.
I personally know
some of those numbers, they have names, hopes, hurts, fears, laughter, to me some in that number are friends, people
I call my own. Tunde my boy across the oceans, he will be a young man soon, he
has done childhood on his own, raised himself. He is the face of the
brave-broken. And that little one, a girl spilling with matted curls and lice
scratching about, she was feral, harsh towards any adult hand, she would glare fifteen
feet from me as I placed the clean water and loaf of bread upon the sand, she
stood the age of seven, had a baby on her hip and two toddlers hid behind her
frail body. I asked the locals, another story of the same kind, alone, caring
for the only three left alive. What of
the innocent baby we left behind in a dusty home on the equator, his child-mama
crippled and desolate.
I carry these
children with me. They are part of my heartbeat, each leaving an imprint in the
luxury of my freedom.
They taught me how
utterly broken this world is.
These
are names of the children of the millions.
~
I listen to my
daughter asleep under her hand stitched quilt, she is clothed in clean pajamas,
her bottle is filled with warm organic milk. Today she was parented, peppered
with a thousand displays of love, her Daddy worked hard to provide for her, and
her Mama cradled her in arms, gently bathed and fed her, she had a day filled
with laughter, play and security.
As the moon rose and
night's shadows danced over our home the parent's prayers surround our sleeping
babies, we thank the Lord for our little treasure who was
snatched from the fire.
We know the promised power of prayer preserved her life from abortion, and
when neglect threatened her very existence God led and placed her in a home
safe and where love surrounded her. And when her brokenness came from her depth,
she was in a family willing to learn the art of healing.
~
~
During the hours of
night I think of all the travesties that will be inflicted upon the young and vulnerable
of our world, starvation, rejection, abuses and fears.
I can see a God who's
tears slip freely for everyone of these orphans. Because He knows the number of
hair upon their heads, He knows the stories behind their scars. Within His heart came the words of His Holy
Book, He says "I will place the lonely in families" and commissions families to
care for the needs of the orphans!
With fear I can
picture our daughter if she had not been spared, living the life of one of
those millions. I can imagine her alone. I can imagine another like her still
left in darkness. This alters my view of life and luxury and the all-American dream.
It alters my grasp on faith and the great commission,
to love one another.
To boldly flee the
trap of self-focused comforts and embrace a little girl covered with lice, or
take a teen boy home for Christmas knowing your holiday perfection will be
greatly tainted, who will love the infant screaming in agony as alcohol and
toxic drugs leave his body and his shrilling lasts from one sunrise to the
next.
As the body of Christ
we are losing the battle against abortion and abandonment. We have cowardly ran
from the fields of this battle. This year in Canada far too many babies will be
born dead. This year in Canada more children will join the ranks of orphans
then there are permanent families available. This year in my affluent and wealthy
city the government will build another orphanage to house children, because the
need for foster families is so great. This is my city, my county, these
children are on my watch!
~
~
And church, these
precious young God has given us, they are our responsibility also. As you plan and strategize to grow your
congregation what about accepting
thirty-thousand waiting children that live within our county and the
millions beyond our borders.
I can see a church filled with the colours of
the continents, bubbly and alive. How about sharing a pew with a few children
with ADD or who were born addicted to drugs, what about a little girl
saved from child slavery, she may be rough around the edges, but can I tell
you a secret? They need the love of our Lord!
Body of Christ, we
are to be the dazzling light of love and holiness here to this broken world, may
I suggest we all sharpen are battle tactics and face the enemy who is
snatching our young from us. We must start with prayer, fervently, for the women
today and tomorrow who feel the need to rid their bodies of life. We
must be willing to open our homes to their young.
Let each one of us
become involved with adoption and fostering. We can make meals for a weary foster mom, mow the
lawn for a father who has adopted a sibling group, babysit for an adoptee couple
in need of some time alone, ENCOURAGE those who have welcomed young-ones into their
home, find an adoption agency and help
cover the costs of a family desperate to bring their child home from overseas.
We could fill the forms, open our arms, make room in our homes, we can foster,
we can adopt, we can each start the ripples of healing in a ocean of pain.
~
~
And if we don't we
will have to answer to a great God who formed each one of these children, he
sculpted them with his very heart and had to watch as darkness stole around
them. And if you listen you will hear our God's tears, if you follow His
leading you will be guided to His heart,
there He holds the wounds of this world and those millions of children each
with a name and a destiny far above the mire they have been offered.
Let us not be the
ones who look away from their plight.
Let this be the time
in history when a bridge is built between the injustices towards children and
the safety of God's love.
~
