“A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows,
is God in his holy dwelling.
God sets the lonely in families,” Psalm 68:5-6a
I always marvel this time of year that God sent His Son to earth as a tiny babe.
It wasn’t enough that he took on the form—and limitations—of a man. I mean, couldn’t He have just appeared somewhere, full-grown, and started His ministry by calling His disciples?
That would have certainly been a tremendous step down for the One who created the universe.
But for some reason, God saw fit to reduce Himself not only to our earthly form, but that at its most fragile and defenseless. He became an infant.
He allowed Himself to be dependent upon mere humans.
When He waited for Mary to feed Him, do you think He remembered His ability to speak light into being? As He was learning to walk on wobbly toddler legs, do you suppose He wanted to tell His parents He was the One who had parted the Red Sea for their ancestors? As He learned to speak Hebrew, was He reflecting on the Tower of Babble He’d brought down?
The Mighty One became a baby for us.
I’m certain that God—in His wisdom—had no shortage of reasons for sending His Son as a wee One. Perhaps a few of them are:
*He identifies with our entire human experience.
*His contemporaries knew His humble beginnings.
*He knows what it means to be placed in a family.
Family. The omnipotent One had parents. And one of those was a step-father!
He also had siblings. Now, that takes the idea of sibling rivalry to a whole new place. How do you keep up with the guy who changes water into wine?
But to empathize with the human experience, He had to experience family—the attachment, the frustration, the memories, the comfort, the pain, the competition, the shared history, the traditions, the expectations, the lessons of family.
Because ever since God created a man and then gave him a wife, there has been family. And by choosing the way humans reproduce, God ordained the family as the place where children grow up.
There were no orphanages in the Garden of Eden.
The foster care system wasn’t part of God’s original design.
Parents didn’t die prior to the Fall.
In a world before sin, children were kept and loved and nurtured. They were raised in a family where they were safe and healthy and encouraged to reach their potentials.
This is why The Boaz Project strives to replicate an environment as close to the family as possible for the orphans we reach.
We recognize that—because sin is ever-present in our world—orphans are a reality. And, sadly, they will not all get adopted. So our job in every situation is to try to move a child from his current situation to one that more closely resembles the family God intended.
Because God is a Father to the fatherless, and we are their brothers and sisters.
This month, as you pray for the Boaz Project, please remember the following requests and praises:
Thank God for our partners around the globe who bring orphans into their families and model God’s love—not only to orphans, but also to their communities.
Dec. 10-18 we will have teams in Russia and Kenya! Please ask Good for safety, energy and unity as they minister to orphans and orphanage staff.
Please pray for The Boaz Project’s leadership as they triage numerous needs that have presented in recent weeks.
Please pray for Maya, one of the girls at House of Joy in India. She has a cyst in her leg, and it is causing her a lot of pain.
Thank God for prompting the generosity of donors who’ve given toward a home for Agape Fellowship. Pray we’ll be able to make full use of the $20,000 matching grant available by year’s end, enabling us to purchase the home!
Believing in miracles,
April
*This article is the sixth in a series covering each of The Boaz Project’s core values. This month’s core value is “God designed the family and desires that everyone know the love and acceptance it offers.”—Ps. 68:5-6a.