"In the blink of an eye, thousands of children lost their homes, their families, and their way of life when the earth ruptured under their feet in Haiti last week. Aid groups say tens of thousands of children were orphaned by the cataclysmic 7.0 earthquake-so many that they won't even venture to guess the number.
And with so many buildings flattened in the capital city of Port-au-Prince, many children are now living alone in the streets." --Reporter Karlie Pouliot, FOX News, January 20, 2010
An "orphan" is defined by the dictionary as, "a child who has been deprived of parental care and has not been adopted" or "one that lacks support, supervision or care."
Jeremiah, looking back on the ruins of the destroyed capital city, Jerusalem, and contemplating the loss of lives and homes and families and even the glorious temple at the center of Hebrew lives, describes the people's condition as, "We have become orphans without a father, our mothers are like widows" (Lamentations 5:3). Those who lack "support, supervision or care."
Their dinner party had suddenly been turned from an evening of fun and fellowship into a nightmare of confusion, anxiety and uncertainty. Jesus had embarrassed them by His humility, stunned them by His prediction of betrayal, unnerved them by predicting their leader's denials, sorrowed them by the announcement of His soon departure to a place they could not immediately go, and shocked them by informing them that they had seen God's face and lived to tell about it! He spoke of His preparation for them in "paradise" but made it clear that they were not home yet. So to this intimate flock who had left their vocations, their families, their homes to be fully devoted followers, He calms their fears with this promise: "I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you."
Jesus' word of encouragement to those of us caught between the promise of paradise while enduring life in this present, fallen world of wars, rumors of wars, natural disasters, shattered hopes and fleeting dreams is this: He has gone to prepare a home FOR us. And, He has come in the person of the Holy Spirit to prepare a home IN us! "I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you."
"A father of the fatherless and a judge for widows, is God in His holy habitation" (Psalm 68:5).
"The Lord protects the strangers; He supports the fatherless and the widow, but He thwarts the way of the wicked" (Psalm 146:9).
"I will NOT leave you as orphans; I will come to you...If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him" (John 14:18,23).
"In the blink of an eye, thousands of children lost their homes, their families, and their way of life when the earth ruptured under their feet in Haiti last week. Aid groups say tens of thousands of children were orphaned..."
"Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world" (James 1:27). The Master cares for the orphan and the Father's heart is stirred to support, supervise and care for them. How will God stir OUR hearts to care for the fatherless and to become the hands and feet of Jesus as we long for our promised home in Paradise yet remain in this world of "not home...yet"?
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