Don't miss it

By: Khylee 

 

January of this year was a big month in my life. I didn’t realize it at the time, but looking back I see it was a time of learning, growth, and challenge.

To say that I am obsessed with reading other people’s blogs would be an understatement- fashion , home improvement and, food blogs…I had to get google reader just to keep up with them all.  In January, I stumbled upon ADOPTION blogs and I was like kid in a candy store.  I saw families that looked like the family I had always envisioned (one with multiple different skin tones, hair textures, and eye shapes) with parents that looked completely different. Rusty, the pastor at my church, brought up James 1:27 one Sunday that month and for the FIRST time I saw in the bible “Religion that God our father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans.”  I had grown up in church my entire life and missed this verse!  How could have I missed this verse?  There it was, not only was my heart crying, ADOPT, but now I was reading God’s word and it was saying just that.

Later that same day I found a new adoption blog (Waiting on a Word) and the scripture at the top was Isaiah 1:17 “…take up the cause of the fatherless”.   There it was again, in the scripture, the call to take care of the orphan.  I excitedly showed Adam these verses…and he looked at me like I was crazy woman.  “Did you know these were in there”… I said. ” “Well, yeah, didn’t you?”  “No, I had no idea the word specifically said that we are to take care of the orphan.”  HOW COULD I HAVE MISSED IT?

That is one my fears that the adoption process has made me stop and begin to recognize in my life…that I will somehow miss it.  That I will get so wrapped up in myself, my desires, my middle-class privileged life style, my possessions, my religion, my traditions, on being comfortable---that I will miss out on hurting people, that I will miss out on something better than “stuff”, that I will miss out on watching God perform miracles, that I will miss out on getting to be a part of something bigger, that I will miss the life-changing power of the gospel.

But isn’t that what the enemy wants? In John 10:10 it says he has come “only to steal, kill and destroy.”  And so he goes about making sure that children in our state, our country, around the world don’t have a family that can bring about love, healing, safety and protection, that children are trafficked and forced to become labor or sex slaves, that some children in foster care are prescribed 10+ medications because “they are acting out” [goodness, if anyone of us had been ripped out of our home and everything we knew we might just have a few behavior problems ourselves. 20/20 aired a special on this very issue: click here for the video], and the list goes on, and on.   He goes about causing Christian people who have the ability to care for the orphan to stay so wrapped up in their life, to become apathetic to the meaning of the word orphan, to become comfortable with the status quo, to make excuse after excuse and believe lie after lie that.we.miss.it. 

So this Christmas season, lets remember the birth of Jesus- our savior who makes us right again before God, who made it so that WE can be adopted into the family of God, who came so that we can have life---LET US NOT MISS IT.   

(For a challenging and inspiring read on how to make Christmas more meaningful and Christ-Focused read this blog post from Jen Hatmaker entitled “The Christmas Conundrum”)