Orphan Care 4- Suffering?

            Hosea 1:2-3

 When the Lord began to speak through Hosea, the Lord said to him, “Go, marry a promiscuous woman and have children with her, for like an adulterous wife this land is guilty of unfaithfulness to the Lord.”  So he married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.

                 Wow!  I know you are probably wondering where I am going with a passage of scripture like this.  But, the point that I want people to understand is that God calls us to do difficult things.  Orphan care is no different and this principle applies to all ministries, but I think this can be confusing for people that sacrifice their lives to help children. 

                If you are like me it is so easy to get caught up with the pictures of beautiful kids and our hearts get tugged as we want to alleviate their suffering.  But, these cute kids are really just regular people in cute containers.  And since they are normal people they will have the same afflictions we all deal with greed, anger, disobedience, stubbornness, un-forgiveness, meanness, and hatred. There is no guarantee that the individuals we bless with good intentions will ever respond the way we expect. 

                But, God calls people to do hard things.  Hosea was a man of God, I doubt Gomer was at the top of his list for his future wife, even her name does not sound pleasant.  Hopefully, he had cute nickname for her.  Hosea was willing to tell his people about God, and demonstrate it through this difficult relationship.  He continued to follow God's leading, even when he had to go and purchase his wife out of prostitution.

                We do not do ministry of any kind because it is good for us.  In fact, at times it is hard and will be hard.  We will be rejected, picked on, and people will be downright mean to us, that is what Jesus tells us (John 15:19-21).  We do it because we are called to love how God loved us.  Most of us have heard about the mother who sent her child back to Russia. ^LINK I do not know the full story, but it is clear that the mother did not understand that taking this step forward to adopt would require suffering.  In returning the child she may have done what was best for her and kept her from suffering,but at the expense of harming this young boy. 

Romans 5:6-8

 When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners.  Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.

God understands suffering and knew his love may never be reciprocated.  God demonstrated a love that is willing to suffer for the benefit of others.  There will be times of suffering when we give our hearts to others, but it is temporary because God also promises times of celebration.  Yes, children will break our hearts and make us question why we even tried in the first place.  But, some of the children will be transformed, because they give their lives to Christ.

I know this is a bit of a downer this Christmas Season, but remember we do not celebrate this holiday just because Jesus was born.  We celebrate His birth because of Jesus’ willingness to suffer and die for our benefit.  Without this truth, this Christmas celebration would have died out years ago or would have never caught on.  That is why Jesus' birth is so significant, because He gave more then He would ever receive back for people who may not truly fully appreciate His sacrifice.  We are not asked to do something that God has not already done for us!

 Merry Christmas!