TEST - God's Promise: Making Families for the Lonely
Photo courtesy Melody MacDonald [https://odymacphoto.com/families]
A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling.
God sets the lonely in families, he leads out the prisoners with singing; but the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land. —Psalm 68:5-6 (NIV)
My husband and I sat silently in a small, cramped room with other couples. We sat, those of us who found a chair, and stared at the walls mottled gray with age. We were waiting for a man with a thick accent to enter and call our names. One after another, couples were called into a side room while the rest of us wondered if we’d be called next. The couple emerged a few minutes later and walked straight out of the waiting room.
For a few minutes, within the dingy walls of a waiting room in an Ethiopian court building, we strangers became a community of waiters. We came from different countries, wore different clothes, and spoke different languages, but for a few minutes, we were united in the same goal: to become a family.
My husband and I were finally ushered into the side room, an office no bigger than a closet, with a woman behind a cluttered desk who we were told was a judge. She asked if we’d met the children we were matched with. She asked if we understood that we were making a permanent decision. She asked if we still wanted to adopt these children. Like that, still. We said yes. Just that, yes. Then she signed the paperwork and dismissed us.
And with that, we became a family of five.
The problem of orphans will always be a problem without a single solution. It’s messy, riddled with loss and grief, and yet it holds the potential of hope and healing because God uses families for human flourishing.
Psalm 68:5 tells us God is a "father to the fatherless," and what does our good Father do? What is his solution? He "sets the lonely in families." Adoption accomplishes his will. So does foster care and kinship placement.
Not all lonely people are orphans, though. While I was in college, I spent every Thanksgiving away from home, usually one of just a handful of students who stayed in the dorms. It was eerily quiet at a time when I longed for the chaotic noise of my family. Yet, each year, through different circumstances, God set me in a family and a home for a comforting, home-cooked meal and fellowship.
Perhaps you are separated from your family. Maybe your family lives far, far away. Or maybe you’ve experienced an emotional rupture in your family. God’s promise is true for you, too.
I especially like how the Amplified version translates verse 6: "God makes a home for the lonely." I believe this promise has a now and future fulfillment. Now, God can make a home for you within the Church. Those relationships, centered on the love of Jesus, are often the deepest and most rewarding. Ephesians 2:19 tells us, "Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household." Ultimately, God’s children are members of His family—He has made a home for us in Heaven where we will live together as one family with one Father as head over us all.
Family is our first community, and life lived in community is messy, loud, and imperfect. It is also warm, rich, and supportive. Like a judge signing a permanent adoption decree, God secures a home for children forever. We are never alone.
Questions for Reflection:
1. How have you experienced the love of family with people you don’t share blood with?
2. Who needs to be folded into the love of your family?
