ORPHANS AND WIDOWS

When you read the Bible, you see over and over God’s passion to demonstrate his power and love in the life of orphans and widows. “The LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe. He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow” (Deuteronomy 10:17-18). “Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation” (Psalm 68:5). Continually throughout their history, God exhorts his people, “Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause” (Isaiah 1:17).

We live in the midst of an orphan crisis. Approximately 153 million children live as orphans, meaning they have lost at least one parent. Included in that number are about 18 million children who have lost both parents. Not included in that number, though, are the millions of effectively orphaned children who live in institutions or on the streets, in addition to vast multitudes who live as “social orphans,” meaning that even if a parent is alive, the children rarely, if ever, see that parent or experience life as part of a family.

More than that, orphans and widows often live in the same home. When Scripture speaks of the orphan and the widow, doubtless it refers primarily to those who were orphaned or widowed due to a parent’s or husband’s death. But at the present time, well over a third of children in the United States are living in a home with only one parent, and nearly half of all births are to unmarried women —both inevitable realities in a culture that minimizes the priority and permanence of marriage. The result is a growing number of children and women who lack a parent or husband in the home.

The implications of this are mammoth for the church in contemporary culture. Now, possibly more than at any other point in history, the church has an opportunity to rise up and show God’s love not just to children and women whose parents or husbands have died but also to children and women whose parents or husbands have disappeared from their lives. Christ compels us to counter culture by stepping in to care for orphans and widows when significant people have stepped out of their lives. Indeed, the Father to the fatherless and the Defender of the widow is calling his people to care for these children and women as our own families.

PRAY

Ask God to:

• Open your eyes to see the orphans and widows around you.
• Empower Christians around the world to protect the most vulnerable.
• Remind you of the way he has adopted you as his child in Christ.

PARTICIPATE

Prayerfully consider taking these steps:

• Start the process of foster care or adoption, or find tangible ways to support families who are fostering or adopting children.
• Either on your own or with your family, consider reaching out to, spending time with, and serving a specific orphan or widow in your church or neighborhood.
• Sponsor an orphan or widow in another country through a gospel-driven Christian ministry and maintain contact with the person you are sponsoring.

PROCLAIM

Consider the following truths from Scripture:

• Psalm 68:5-6: “Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation. God settles the solitary in a home.”
• Galatians 4:4-5: “When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.”
• James 1:27: “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”

For more (and more specific) suggestions, visit CounterCultureBook.com/OrphansandWidows.