Wednesday, March 3, 2010

I, (State your name), am a recovering orphan, Part II

Yesterday I began a short blog-series on being a recovering orphan. Make sure to click here and read part I, or search in the label list to the right for "recovering orphan."

Because of the brokenness of life, unfortunately, just like with Annie, the “memory” of Miss Hannigan is never far away.

Amazingly, however, we have a “Daddy Warbucks.” In Christ, we have a Father in Heaven who pursues us and has fought the Enemy on our behalf and has adopted us by grace through faith into His own family.

Even still, there is this haunting, “old voice” of Miss Hannigan ringing in our ears.

I have a close friend who, along with his wife and other children, made a family decision to adopt a young girl from China. It’s been a beautiful thing to see. A couple weeks ago the family decided to take their “new” daughter to a Chinese parade celebrating the Chinese New Year. The thought was it might make her feel good to see some “familiar” faces after being brought into a brand new world of Caucasians…somehow, it didn’t work as planned…Their little girl became unexpectedly agitated after what had been a season of absolute peace and calm since entering our country and living in my friend’s home.

The only explanation that makes any sense is she panicked, thinking that perhaps she was going to be “rejected” or “given back” to the place she had lived for all her life, a place where she had no father or mother or brothers or sisters…I mean look at it from her perspective…seeing people that looked like her just reminded her of her “old life” as an orphan. What was she thinking? Did I do something wrong? Am I not really loved by these people? Will I ever be truly accepted?

We run into circumstances like that as well…even as adults, we face situations that seem to bring the fears of being all alone, rejected and uncared for to the front of our minds. We will battle slipping back into an orphan mentality all our days...and that's why God tells us often in the New Testament about our adoption in Christ.

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