theFatherheart

Our family has begun our adoption process, we have been through courses, read books, spent time in prayer, looking inside and out to make certain that this is God’s plan for us.

Through all this we have seen God’s heart and it is for children becoming united with solid loving families, within which they can grow and achieve God’s purposes in their lives, in an environment of love, support, security and grace.

So the question is, if this is such a massive desire of God and if it would only take approximately 7% of christians to ensure that every orphan has a family, if this is His heart, then why are there still orphans.

If we can extend this we can see that God’s heart is also for the poor, it is for marriages, it is for community. Why then do we have poverty, why is there such a great rate of divorce and why do we live lives that promote isolation and loneliness?

“A Father to the fatherless, defender of widows,this is God, whose dwelling is holy. God places the lonely in families”

Psalm 68:5-6

So if we were to paint a picture of God’s family, not the church, but what we say best describes a family that shares His heart, what would that look like?

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To stand alongside, to encourage, to motivate, to protect, to provide. to love and to watch complete the race. Beautiful.

When I look at my son I am taken back a couple of years and reminded of how I longed to be a father so that I could better understand God as Father. I believed that I would have a better understanding of His love for me if I was able to look at my own child and experience the love of a father, as the father.

It has nearly been 3 years, and God has allowed me glimpses into His love for me through my love for my son in ways that I could never have imagined. Just today my son fell into the pool and as I reached into the water,  looking at his little body gasping and grasping for anything that could save him, I was again staggered by the thought that the urgency and determination that I expressed in pulling my son out of the water didn’t even compare to the desire that He has to reach down and save us.

Befitting of this realisation is that it happened on the Easter weekend, the single most important yearly event in the lives of all Christians.

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8

I cannot understand the love of a God who would allow his Son to die, but I can understand the love of a father who would do anything so that his son would be saved.

So this is where we are a family at the moment. We have received so much, but we find ourselves challenged to express the love that was given freely to us, to others. Daily I find my heart is breaking for the things that break His and that mostly involves how his little children, the most innocent and helpless, find themselves hurt, abandoned and oppressed on a daily basis. I cannot stand by!

According to UNICEF 25% of children, or 3.9 million, are living in South Africa are orphans, imagine the challenges these children will face in the future when we find ourselves in a situation where 25% of adults have come from a position of abandonment. Only 500000 of this 3.9 million are seen as wards of the state, leaving 3.4 million still wondering, where is the hope of the world? If we were to take the number of adoptable children and then estimate how long it would take to have these children placed into loving families, based on the current rate of adoptions in South Africa, we’re looking at 200 years and that’s if we ignore the fact that more children are being born daily and that some of these children will never be adopted because after age 7 their chances drop hugely.

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My wife and I are in the process of adopting a child so I thought this was a wonderful song. As we learn and discover more about adoption from our perspective and from God’s, its amazing to see that the only difference between biological and adoptive children is the method by which they were brought into our lives.

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”  -Marianne Williamson

And then we grow up!

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The more I listen, the more I hear.  No matter what the excuses or defences may be, I have seen first hand the hurt and pain that pornography produces.

I have heard the arguments, I have sat with men as they defend their desires, read articles that attempt to rubbish the claims that pornography is damaging and I have browsed through comments on news articles from people who seek to put forward that no harm can come from indulging in pornography.

Until you sit across from a young boy whose life is falling apart from the guilt, unless you see the hurt in the face of the ones you love most, unless you take the time to look into the lives of those poor people who spend their lives producing the drug that so many men and woman find themselves addicted to, unless you are willing to go on a journey of discovering the truth about what many believe to be “a little bit of fun” you cannot  in all honesty defend something that is killing our children.

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Have a look at this video, so real and raw. It shows how a Father, even when hurt or angry, will always be a Father and a son, regardless of how misunderstood or alone he feels will always be His son.

Well 2012 has started with a bang, I feel as f I hit the ground galloping. So much to look forward to this year, great promises, great adventures and great victories following great challenges.

My son started school the other week and it was such a great occasion to see him begin a journey that will play such a massive role in forming who he will become. No matter how much my wife or I want to remember him as this tiny little ball of cuddles, the truth is, we grow, we learn, we love, we conquer, we suffer and one day we will meet our creator.

The year started off with someone quite close to me passing away. It was very sudden and caught everyone off guard and my family now needs to pick up the pieces and learn to do life again without him in it.

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We’ve all heard how no one sits on their death-bed wishing they’d spent more time at the office, landed a bigger deal, spent more time on their own, watching sports, being upset, being angry, just being. Everyone will agree regardless of their faith, that they would expect someone to wish they had spent more time with the ones they loved and loved them.

What a year, some epic down points but also some magnificent highlights. We lost a baby, but we have been blessed with watching our son grow and grow. From new words, to personality developments, to potty training and big boy beds. My beautiful wife is still my best friend and importantly my favourite person. Jesus is still my Lord and Saviour and continues to blow us away with His grace and favour. What a God!

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