Abandonment and Hope

I was talking to my mom earlier today, about a very dear and frequently talked about topic with us. Orphans. And it's set my mind thinking about them and I can't stop now, as usual. So tonight I'm writing about my thoughts after our little conversation about orphans who are abandoned.

Orphans hold such a special place in my heart, a place that is constantly being broken but by God's grace always filled with his love. Earlier I was thinking about kids who wait for parents who never return. I can't imagine the pain of knowing that you've been left but still wishing to hope that they could return someday. When I ponder these situations and the stories I've heard of abandonment and the children I've met who were left, it's so easy to get discouraged. It's easy to hear a statistic like '143 million orphaned children in the world today' and simply feel like there's nothing good enough to be done. But it's then that I'm reminded that though this is an incredible, tragic number of orphans, they are each people. They are not just a number in a survey, this fact represents beautiful little souls and each have names, personalities and interests and a need to be loved . I'm also reminded that no matter who may ever leave anyone, we can all have a Father who said he would never leave nor forsake us, and that his Spirit is here to comfort and guide us. I remember that the Savior who gave his very own life, who was perfect and blameless yet took on every sin I would ever make before I'd even breathed his name, he has gone to prepare a perfect, loving, and truly forever home for me. And it's in this that I find hope, knowing that I am loved by this awesome God, and that these kids are loved by him.

I am so small in the picture of what I could do in this world for orphans, but his love is mighty in my heart and soul. He said he would never leave nor forsake us, and he said we are to share the love he's given us. That love is something we know because Christ laid down his life for us and now we are to do the same, put our comfort and preferences aside and wrap our arms and hearts around those he has created to know his love. When I think of the heart breaking and embarrassing number of orphans that we have simply neglected in a world where we are meant to be the image and body of Christ, it's easy to feel so many things. And it's good to feel those emotions, we should be upset and should cry out to our Father for mercy and for justice in this tragedy. But let's not ever let the heart ache that surely comes in opening our eyes to the orphaned shut off our hearts, let's open them all the more for God's love and grace to fill so that when we are broken, what they truly need will pour out.

Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Hebrews 10:23-24