I, (State your name), am a recovering orphan, Part IV

The final in my four-part series. If you missed yesterday's post, check it here

If you think about…all of our sin, failure and foolishness can ultimately be traced to "giving in" to an orphan mentality…the thought that we’re all alone in the world and there is no One Above Who loves us, cares for us and Who has a plan for our lives to be part of a Family and to live in a Home in a place of safety and strength.

I find it so amazing, interesting, even intriguing, that Jesus, near the time of going to the cross…near the time when the disciples would enter a season of great confusion, actually said to them, “I will NOT leave you…as ORPHANS” (John 14:18). Hmmmm.

It’s like…He knew.

He does.

We have this Deep Desire to hear the same words Jesus heard at His baptism: “You are My Beloved Son (or Daughter); with you I am well-pleased!” You are loved. You have a home. You are safe. You need not fear. You can be yourself. You don’t need to run. You no longer need to hide.

Come…join the family. Take your seat at the table.

Romans 8:15—You did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear; but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons (and daughthers), by Whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”

Orphans tend to be self-consumed; they’ve rarely felt the love, affection, care, acceptance, or the sense of family they long for. Orphans who are adopted, however, eventually begin to be freed from self-absorption, through the process of love and care and a sense of belonging.

We’ll never love others unconditionally, we’ll never enter the risk of love, we’ll never be willing to give up our “rights” or be willing to truly sacrifice for others until we’re secure…and we’ll never truly be secure until we begin to plumb the depths of the reality of our adoption in Christ.

Part of our calling as image-bearers of the God Who created us is to seek to provide the safe place in our relationships where people have a home. Part of our calling as Christ-followers is to work to make our churches the New Garden, a place of safety and strength…a place others will feel at home…like Annie visiting “Daddy Warbuck’s” place at Christmas. We are to begin working now to re-make this world into the New Jerusalem...

Part of our calling as humans is to be the echo of the Voice of God to one another that says through the finished work of Christ…

“I will not leave you as orphans.”

Good news indeed.