Pure Religion
James 1:27 Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, . .
Sometime today, take a moment to read Psalm 94 to understand where I’m coming from. The bottom line: God does not abandon His children. When we care for the abandoned ones of our society, we are the hands of Abba!
By caring for the abandoned, we are privileged to enjoy the satisfaction of genuinely helping the helpless. By being vulnerable enough to help them, we’ll also experience the pain our Father feels when rejected by the ones we’re trying to love. (LaVonne and I served as house parents in a children’s home for 4 ½ years. Let me tell you, the joy and the pain is real.)
During James’ day, children, even those with families, could be abandoned because the family couldn’t afford to keep them or, if they simply didn’t want to have them. Being adopted could be like winning the lotto for a boy if his benefactor was in need of heirs. Probably more likely, an orphan would be adopted for other uses. I doubt our imaginations can conjure what those “uses” might be.
God called man to multiply and fill the earth so it makes sense that orphans represent little victories for the destroyer because they would very likely starve to death. By the same token, when we snatch one from destruction, we’re sticking a hot poker into the destroyer’s eye while experiencing the Joy of Abba in saving another.
When James says “pure and undefiled religion” he wasn’t joking!
To ponder: These are examples. What other “abandoned” souls are there that we should consider?
Father, everywhere we turn we see opportunities to experience Your Joy and Your Suffering. We want to know You better! Hold us up, keep us strong as we reach out to experience, in our own weak way, what You experience.