Who Would Have Known?

OK. Look at the pictures above. Now look again.

OK, the girl in the first photo is 2 year old Havyn on her 2nd birthday. Beautiful, huh? Now look at the second picture. This is a picture of the same little girl in her adoption referral picture when she was an orphan in Ethiopia 2 years ago.

MJ reads a blog (http://buildingtheblocks.blogspot.com) and this couple adopted this precious little girl and were celebrating her 2nd birthday. When she showed the pictures to me I was amazed. Who would have known that behind the bloated stomach, the sunken eyes, the little malnourished body was such a beautiful little girl?! And what would have happened to this little girl had this couple not stepped-up and did what God called them to do?

In 2004 (sorry, it's the most recent statistic I could find.) there were 4.5million orphans in Ethiopia. And only a tiny fragment of these kids ever have a chance of being adopted. That's very sad. But my question is this... "how many people has God asked to do something and they haven't?" Seriously... how many? Because I don't know if you've noticed it or not but God's very serious about taking care of the orphaned. There are places in scripture where He's actually ticked-off at His people (the whole nation) when they neglected them ( Exodus 22:22-24, Isaiah 1:15-17, 21-26, just to name a few).

So, if God is the same yesterday, today and forever, why would we think He's not just as serious about orphans today? Because He is! So where does that leave us? Are we all suppose to adopt? Are we all suppose to fill our homes with orphaned children? I don't know but I do know that God has asked us to do "something." That could very well mean adoption. Or it could mean foster care. Or it could mean sending money to someone who works with orphans. Or it could mean giving money to that couple in your church who are going through the adoption process and could use the financial help. Or it could mean volunteering to the watch kids at the local foster care education class, in your hometown, while their parents are sitting through class. Or it could mean ____________, you get the point, right? We can all do something at some level. We have the resources and we have the Spirit of God on the inside of us to make a difference. So will you? Because who knows how many more Havyn's are out there just waiting for a fighting chance? And who knows, you could be the one who makes a difference. Go ahead... look at the pictures again... I think you can.

Love Ya,

Jim