As our own. As ourselves.

I hated my life since the third grade when I was unmercifully beaten. I felt then that life is lost and death is looking for me. And my tears were telling me that life is nothing in comparison with death. I felt like a little cockroach which responds to fear when seen.

A bunch of American people came to our school. I thought these people wanted to laugh at us. But I was mistaken. They are people willing to give up the most precious gift a person can possess: love.

Their intentions to share seemed strange as they had their own kids.

But these people have such big hearts to give

that there is still enough room

even for us little cockroaches.

For those of you who have been following my life as of late, you most likely have realized some reoccurring themes. Love. Faith. Justice. Serving. Compassion. Action. I've come into deeper heart, head, and life knowledge of these words. They are synonymous yet can be seen so differently and shown in many different ways. It's all still a very big mystery to me... how I'm even here right now thinking about these marvelous ideals, which are more than ideals, they are pieces that make up the very identity and character and Being that is our God. Too wonderful for words. I have yet to know why I even try to write about it!

Tonight I want to share something that has been so very heavy upon my heart these past few months: adoption. Only the Lord Himself can put such a burden and passion and desire in someone's heart, and it seems that this desire is growing by the day. No, by the minute! I was given the indescribably great opportunity to spend my weekend with a group from Romania. I will not call them orphans, because they are not. At least not anymore. They now reside at a beautiful place called Caminul Felix. This organization took on the much needed task of rescuing children from the streets and abusive/ neglected home situations, and has placed them in homes. Real homes. With a real, loving family. I don't think I have ever had people bless my heart as much as these! Though the language was messy, they were so much fun to be with. I could go on and on about them, really. Looking at their faces, their laughter, wondering where they might be or who they might be had someone not stepped in to save them. That thought brings tears to my eyes. You would have to meet these precious ones for yourself to understand how absolutely delightful they are! And to think... just because they were in situations beyond themselves, they could have had their very lives taken from them because no one cared enough to be the hands and feet of Jesus. That blows my mind.

Which brings me to the book, Fields of the Fatherless, by Tom Davis. I bought this book several weeks, if not months ago. The Lord and His timing-- so brilliant. I will, of course, share some of his words with you:

"In this world, you are an orphan-- eagerly anticipating your adoption as God's child.

In this world, you are a widow-- longing for reunion with your Bridegroom.

In this world, you are a stranger-- a pilgrim waiting to become a citizen of heaven.

And in this world, God has called you to care for the orphan, the widow, and the stranger."

"... All she & the other little girl wanted was the chance to have a family... I decided right then in that orphanage that I would do whatever I could to help orphaned boys and girls around the world who were hoping against hope that someone would love them."

"One of the best definitions of justice I've heard is implied by the definition of it's opposite: evil."

"When it comes to caring for the people on God's heart, indifference is a sin."

"God gave us the responsibility to care for the defenseless. It's through our hands that the Father's love touches, it is through our voices that His voice is heard, it is through our efforts and those of the church that His care is revealed to the ones the rest of the world has forgotten."

"Why do so many of us look for the easy way out, for a way to be let off the hook rather than living out of our compassion?... Once the words of Scripture are illuminated, the truth of what they say doesn't allow me to make excuses."

"Can you remember what it was like to not know the peace of God, to face your days alone? ... Your gratitude will make you sensitive to the needs of others-- you can't help by feel compassion and act on it."

"The great news is that a sacrificial life is the freest way to live. A sacrificial, giving life is a life filled with the most meaning and significance. And it's the life Jesus blesses. "

"We see Jesus in the eyes of the poor because we see in them who we really are. We are able to have genuine compassion as Christ had compassion on us, because we see ourselves."

"Well guess what... true joy doesn't always come through the things that give us warm fuzzies!"

*Heb. 12:2

"If only 7% of professing Christians around the world responded, every single orphan in the world would have a home."

"The word compassion is derived from the Latin words 'pati' and 'cum' which together mean 'to suffer with.' Compassion asks us to go where it hurts, to enter into places of pain, to share in brokenness, fear, confusion, and anguish. Compassion requires us to be weak with the weak, vulnerable with the vulnerable, and powerless with the powerless. Compassion means full immersion in the condition of being human."

"How do we overcome fear? We start by making others' pain a priority in our lives. People are eternal; fear is not."

"He is here, with you. As you walk through the fields of the fatherless, your light will break forth like the morning and the life you live with no longer seem mundane and meaningless. Instead, every minute will be filled with joy, purpose, and significance."

"So what does God look like?

He looks like the Romanian orphan who doesn't have a hope in the world unless someone enters his life and reveals to him the love of the Father. He looks like the little girl in Africa who has no father, who has watched her mother's body being ravaged by AIDS for the last five years, and has been crying over and kissing her since she took her last breath about ten minutes ago. Now she has nobody, she's only seven, and she's standing all alone on a dirt road as they carry her mother away.

He looks like the struggling single mother who is hanging on by an emotional thread. She is mother, father, protector, and provider, and to top it all off, she has to leave the child she loves so much in the hands of a stranger all day just so she can work and put food on the table.

Oh, look! Another glimpse of God. Do you see Him in the eyes of that young Palestinian student who left his family to study in America. He's isolated, a stranger. And in need of someone to show Him what the real love of God feels like.

... Will you do what it takes to minister to Him? For the joy set before you, search for the treasure in earthen vessels. When you do, you'll find Christ Himself."

Because you saw the face of Jesus in the face of the lost and lonely,

God will see His Son in your eyes.

Because you cared most about what He cares about,

God will recognize you as His faithful partner.

And because you made every effort to express the Father's love, even the smallest deeds you did for the least of these will count greatly for all eternity.