Last night, we went to see STUCK--the documentary that was made to highlight the millions of children stuck in orphanages and the families who are stuck in government red tape trying to adopt. STUCK left us more determined than ever to answer God's call in James 1:27.
The film provides a close-up view of what life is like when you're an adoptive family riding the emotional roller coaster known as international adoption, but more difficult to see is the close-up view of the harsh reality facing the millions of children who spend their days in orphanages.
By the end of the film, my mind was reeling, and my heart was overwhelmed. Images from it haunted my thoughts during the drive home--images of children laying in cribs that they had obviously outgrown years before; images of children digging in the trash, hoping to find something to eat; images of a baby sleeping on the floor while a caregiver steps over him without even glancing down.
The picture painted from these images is painful to look at, and when I finally gather enough courage to look, the picture that I see shatters my heart. It's tempting to protect my heart by putting this out of my mind and losing myself in the distractions of every day life, but this is not to be.
It's not to be because God doesn't call us to self-preservation. Instead, He calls us to love extravagantly, no matter the risk to our hearts and feelings of comfort. Looking after the orphan and defending the fatherless requires loving extravagantly. Looking after the orphan and defending the fatherless is a call that weighs heavily on our hearts, but it is also a call that drives us forward and keeps us fighting through the red tape we find ourselves in as we wait for Sam.
(Please, don't read this and think, "that's so good that God has called them to care for orphans." If you're a Christian, God has called YOU to look after the orphan, too. Ask Him what He would have you do.)
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