Goodbye Orphanage

Orphan Annie

If you are familiar with the hit musical, "Annie", you've heard the story.  Orphan Annie struggles day by day to survive life in an orphanage all while believing her parents are out there somewhere waiting to bring her home.  As an outsider, you find out her parents are dead, and a plot develops where two individuals pretend to be her parents to receive a hefty prize sum waiting to award the individuals who claim Annie as their daughter.  Why is their prize money, you ask?  Because a wealthy man loves Annie and wants her to be happy.  He'd love to adopt her, but Annie insists that she wants her birth parents.  The plot to harm Annie is discovered, and Annie is rescued both from the criminals and the orphanage.  She proceeds to be adopted by a man rich in both love and resources.  Happy ending for the little orphan Annie, who will now be known as Annie Warbucks.  A girl no longer an orphan with a hopeless future and a plot to harm her.  No, she is now a girl with a new name, new identity, and has a forever family with a promising future.  It's a great story that has been beloved since it first hit the stage in 1977.  

But what if the story did not end that way?  What if the plot was found out, Annie was rescued, but she had to stay in the orphanage?  She was saved from criminals but her life continued on in the orphanage.  Sure, Annie was saved, but she's still an orphan.  Poor little Orphan Annie, no family, no identity, and while she now knows the truth of her birth parents death, she remains an orphan.  Sure, she can be adopted by another, but there is no sure guarantee that she will find a family.  Maybe Annie, would one day look to the other orphans as family members until they all reached maturity and went off to scratch their way into the world.   And, don't worry, someday Annie will die and again be reunited with her birth parents!  It's a less than satisfying ending, don't you think?  

Photo credit.  Sara Krulwich.  As seen in The New York Times 12/12/06

Trust me, No one

No child wants to stay in an orphanage.  No patient wants to stay in the hospital.  No pet lover wants to see an animal stay in a shelter.  Refugees in camps long for home.  Following rules of a religion will not bring life.   

Why is this?  Nutrition, hygiene, a bed, safety, and order is not enough to fill our hearts with life.  We were made for more than that.  We have a need for love, belonging, identity, and relationship.  The basics may sustain existence, but surviving on the basics may squelch life.   

 Orphanage Bedroom in Bulgaria.  http://tinyurl.com/lxcfuce

 

Get out of Hell Free

Sometimes, as Christ followers, we make the mistake of stopping at the revelation that we were saved from a great evil - sin, death, and the devil.  We act as if we were left to wander around on this planet and scratch out our existence alone.  We see that the Creator of All, sent his son Jesus to save us from the horrible darkness that left us hopeless.  As grateful as we are, we still tend to fall into a pattern of resolving ourselves to hold on day by day until we reach heaven.  Then the curtain will roll, and our happy ending will finally come, the promise of heaven.  

The work of the cross is not simply a "get out of hell" free card.  

Point to the cross and you too can have heaven!  

The work of Christ's death is not merely a doctrine of sin management.  

Unable to remove that pesky guilt from your conscience?  Look to the cross today.    

The Invitation

Our Father in Heaven has sent out the greatest invitation to man.  Come to the Cross, be clean, find life, be my Sons and Daughters, and go forth in the purposes I have called you to.  Look, you see Jesus?  He has paid your penalty.  He has served your sentence.  In turn, receive His rightful inheritance - welcome to the Family!  You are home.  He  essentially cleansed us from our identity as lawbreakers and slaves, and called us into his Family not as servants or orphans, but sons.   

A good parent with resources does not give their child a cot and porridge 3 meals a day.  A good parent who has the resources gives their child a bed, a pillow, blanket, and a room of their own.  A parent trains their child to walk in the right way and gifts them with all that they need to go along on that path.  A parent provides identity, security, discipline and a never ending supply of love.  

Christ's death and subsequent resurrection restored all that was wrong.  Christ, the Father's only son - both 100% God and 100% man lived a perfect life, died, and rose again, and with Him he made it possible for many sons to know their Dad.  He taught us that we could approach the Creator of the Universe as "Daddy".  By the greatest rescue mission of all time, He freed us from darkness and didn't stop there but brought us into His kingdom.  (If you want to get excited, check out Colossians 1)   He made a way, as the old hymn states to bring "many sons to glory".  

Image Credit to: http://goo.gl/7EH3Q6 found via Google Search

Never Alone, Called to Good Works

He would never leave us alone.  Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit and He did just that.  (John 14:15-12)  The Holy Spirit is far and above the best friend you could ever hope for.  He leads, guides, speaks Truth, comforts, and confirms your identity as a child of the True King.  

God's family is wonderful and I could spend a long time reveling in the goodness of being His daughter...and frankly, I do.  But, He's also given us good work to accomplish.  We have given work this terrible reputation of being awful and living for the weekend.  But that's not the kind of work, Christ has given for us to do.  The best kind of work is one that allows for a sense of accomplishing something, enjoyment in using our abilities to create, explore, and glorify our God who Has created all things.  There is great joy in learning how to do a task and being entrusted to do it well.  I think that's kind of what being about the Father's business looks like.  

Father trains son to perform house work.  Copyright Flint Journal 2010.

I don't know about you, but I'm so thankful that Annie's story ends with her adoption by a dad who loved her so much.  I'm glad she didn't spend the rest of her childhood living in an orphanage.  I'm even more grateful that our Father in Heaven loves us so much that He made a way for us to be His sons and daughters.

1 John 3:1  See how great a love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God!  And that is what we are!

John 3:16  For God so loved the world, He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him, shall not perish but have eternal life.  

  

Ephesians 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.