God's call

Ever since we made the decision to follow God's call and adopt a little girl from Ethiopia, I have had James 1:27 running through my mind almost continuously. It goes like this:

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." James 1:27 (NIV).

Another set of scriptures that keep coming to mind are:

"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.' Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?' The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'" Matthew 25:34-40 (NIV)

I ran across a statistic on Steven Curtis Chapman's adoption website for his Shaohannah's Hope foundation that really hit home and reinforced our commitment to adoption. The statistics show that if just 7% of the 2 billion Christians worldwide would adopt just one orphan, there would be no orphans in the world. Let that sink in a little bit....only 7% of Christians worldwide could give a home to all the orphans in the world!

We don't know exactly how God is going to bring this all about but we know without a doubt that He capable of anything if we are willing to say "yes, Lord, use me."