“Whenever you did it for any of my people, no matter how unimportant they seemed, you did it for me.” Matthew 25:40, The Poverty and Justice Bible
There’s more to giving than writing checks and it often seems to me that those who give unstintingly of themselves give the most.
Will anyone notice if you feed a homeless family, shelter an immigrant, or nurse an elderly neighbor struggling with the flu?
Maybe not, but God will. Our heavenly parent always has, and always will no matter how unimportant society may consider the people you are helping.
In the last two days I’ve seen two moving news interviews with adoptive parents and the children they have fostered and adopted. One was a single mother of two, who was raised in foster homes herself. She is white, her biological kids are white, the children she fostered and then adopted are black, and it was hard to tell whose smiles were the biggest, whose eyes the shiniest, when the judge declared the adoption final. How much is she giving of herself to ask for the privilege of raising and loving those kids? Everything.
The second family lives in an opioid crisis area. That husband and wife have fostered 20 children over the last decade and ultimately adopted five of them who are sisters. They aren’t a rich family, but what they lack in financial resources they make up for by creating a home filled with love and care. One of the oldest sisters, about 12, talked about how good it felt to have a mother she could depend on, a mother who actually liked her.
This isn’t a plea for foster parents, as important as that job is. Only a few of us are called to do that. Rather it is a request for each of us to examine our own lives, to listen with our hearts for a call to service, and give of ourselves as well as our financial resources.
If a reporter asked you today how you give of yourself, would you have anything to talk about?
Blessings on your efforts to hear your call and respond,
Judy Osgood