Refugees, Orphans, Prodigals, and Me

"He had spent everything...and he began to be in need." -the prodigal son (luke 15)

We are a people in great need. Born into the world broken, orphaned, and looking for refuge. For some of us the need for a home, the need for a refuge is masked (to a degree) by our families, who love us and raise us, giving us a place to feel accepted and loved. Many, however, are born into vastly different circumstances.

There are over 140 million orphans in the world.
There are over 10 million refugees in the world.
There are over 25 million internally displaced people. (Individuals who live as virtual refugees in their home country.)
There are nearly 500,000 children in the US foster care system.

Heartbreaking.

Even more heartbreaking is the billions of people who are unaware that they are orphans, that they are prodigals, that they are refugees seeking a home. The Scriptures are clear, all of us, EVERY SINGLE ONE, was an orphan before we were adopted (Galatians 5) by our Abba Father. We were all refugees, and God revealed Himself to be to our refuge. We were all prodigals, and God came running to us as Father. Deuteronomy 10:19 calls Israel "to love the alien because you were at one time aliens in Egypt." We are to love the orphan, the alien, the refugee...because at one time we were ALL these things, and God came in search of us.

How often do we think of the prodigal son as someone else? Someone besides ourselves? Someone who has sinned far worse then we ever have. Let's keep it real, we are all prodigals, we have all gone in search of treasures outside of God. The prodigal son eventually spent all of his money, trying to find a host of things to satisfy him. It is then that Luke says that the prodigal son "began to be in need." What an interesting turn of phrase. It is here, when the prodigal son begins to understand his need, that I believe he begins the journey home.

It begins with need. It begins with our understanding that before we can start to act "Christ-like" we need to be awakened to our great need "for Christ". Need precedes transformation. And it is our great need that God comes to fill. Luke writes "And he arose and came to his father. But while HE WAS STILL A LONG WAY OFF, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him." The Gospel. Right there. When we had no hope, when we were far away, God came running to us. Every single time that we rebel God seeks to rescue, to reconcile us back to Him.

There are physical refugees and orphans in this world, and we need to love them and provide a home for them. www.togetherforadoption.org This is a biblical imperative, it is not optional. We must remember that we, that you, were once an orphan, were once a prodigal, filthy and dirty and eating with the pigs until God came and got you and made you clean. It was nothing you did, it was all what God did. I pray we all remember this, and that this would spur us to love and good deeds toward the orphans, refugees, and prodigals among us.

11Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, — 12remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God... -Ephesians 2:11-13, 19

Jesus himself, born in a borrowed barn in Asia, became an African refugee in Egypt. He is one who understands the plight of the refugee, the plight of all of us. So much so that He came to give us a home, a home full of love, life, and His eternal presence.

this is our God,
R.D.