There are almost three million orphans in South Africa. Four hundred thousand of them are in foster care. The rest are somewhere else. 

According to research in America, 25% of children in foster care will not graduate from high school. Fifty percent will develop a drug addiction. Seventy percent of women will become pregnant before the age of 21 and only 3% will obtain a degree or diploma. 

In African countries, it is much worse. The chances of children who are orphans are much worse. The success stories are rare. 

How devastating must it be to lack a sense of belonging? Where does a child turn when simply seeking a place to feel loved? Where can they go with their burdens, knowing they will find help? 

I suspect that people who aren’t orphans cannot fully understand what orphan children go through. I want to call my children and tell them how fortunate they are to grow up in a home with parents who care for them. 

And then I think back to my childhood. Yes, my father passed away early, but I had a wonderful mother who had to find a job for the first time at the age of 50 to keep her children fed and clothed. 

I’m overwhelmed with gratitude. 

But did you know that we were all orphans? Before we heeded Jesus’ knock on the door of our hearts, we were Fatherless. We stumbled around in the world and had no place to belong. 

We had even less of a sense of a permanent home, a place to call our own forever. 

Fortunately, there is a Father who has a heart for orphans. His heart broke to see that millions of orphans had no place to belong and even less a place to live forever. That’s why He made a plan. 

1What marvelous love the Father has extended to us! Just look at it—we’re called children of God! That’s who we really are. 

There is no greater proof of love on earth than parents taking orphans into their homes and raising them as their own. No money or time is spared to give this orphan what their biological parents couldn’t give them. 

God’s love for each of us is so great that He could not help but make us His children. For that, He first had to allow His own Son to die on a cross. I suspect our minds are too limited to fully comprehend the immensity of God’s love for us. 

We must recognise how incredibly blessed we are to be chosen by God. Indeed, even more than that, we must recognise the magnitude of God’s act in transforming our status from orphans to His children. 

Therefore, let us go and live out this new status in the world, for others are unaware of it and remain, in effect, orphans. Let’s show them what a child of God looks like, so that they will also long to change their orphan status.  

Scripture
1 John 3:1-3 

Reflection
Can you imagine how an orphan must feel?
What does it mean to you to no longer be an orphan?
How can you live your new status in your world? 

Prayer
Father, I am overwhelmed by Your love. How privileged I am to be called Your child! Let me go out into the world to live out this truth, helping others change their status from orphans and become part of Your family. Amen.