Orphan Sunday

Orphan Sunday is coming to a close. Churches all around the U.S. had sermons & other activities to bring the plight of orphans to the forefront of people's minds. My church also did the same thing, beginning with a wonderful video that included the names & pictures of some of the adopted children in our church. I was so moved by the presentation, especially with seeing my children in the video! James 1:27 is one of the most widely shared scripture verses that calls attention to the responsibility of Christians with regard to orphans. Seeing the verse in the video along with some statistics about orphans is haunting. I've seen several numbers: 143 million, 147 million, 160 million.... staggering numbers of children who may have a name but no identity other than "orphan." The babies don't know they are orphans & maybe even some of the 4 & 5 year old children don't know that other children actually have parents and may have siblings but generally do not live in a home with large rooms lined with cribs or beds. Just think about how it would feel to lie down at night without knowing that someone really loves you, is committed to you, wants to sing happy birthday to you... wants to give you his or her last name. A name. A name that identifies you as someone's child, a part of a family. Some of the Chinese orphans have last names that are the names of the orphanages they are in. Sad. I find it really hard to get the little faces that I see on websites out of my mind every night. I don't know what it's like to be an orphan, to have no sense of belonging to a family, to not know how it feels to be tucked in at night by your mom or your dad. But, there are a lot of kids out there who do know those things & the numbers grow daily. We must pray for God's mercy on those children who wait, hoping for a new name, to be able to call out "Mom" or "Dad" & know there will be an answer to that call. May God bless them!