John 14

I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you.

It is almost incomprehensible that the Maker of it all would love us enough to rescue us, clean us up, and adopt us. He loves us so much that He put on an earth suit and walked among us to show Himself to us. Jesus said we must do that too. We must be His hands and feet. We must demonstrate God's love. We must rescue, clean up, and adopt.

How can we say we love God and not feel love for the broken lives around us? John asks this question again later in one of his letters. Love is the overarching theme. We can't obey God, we can't claim rights to His family name, unless we are willing to love with His kind of love. Unless we learn to give ourselves wholly to living out His compassion.

Tonight, we attended the first of our classes to become foster parents. It was really interesting to see how many different life situations had brought all 34 of us to this same point. But what was even more intriguing was how often faith was brought up throughout the night. We talked about it at the break and again on the ride home. But really, faith is the only explanation for offering a home to a neglected child. Why else would someone put themselves through the mountain of paperwork, hours of difficult work, only to one day weep as you say goodbye? Only one reason makes any sense.

And to quote my sweet cousins who have already rescued two of their own, "I only want to live a life that makes sense because of God."