Week 9: There Are No Orphans of God

I had the wonderful privilege of driving a group of students this week to Oglethorpe University in Atlanta, Georgia to see a one man drama of the book of John. The play was performed entirely by one gentleman with just a few props but with a powerful message. This man had memorized the entire book of John from the Bible. It was an absolutely wonderful performance and I am so thankful that I got the opportunity to see it. After the program, the actor allowed for a question and answer session. One of the questions that was posed to him was something along the line of what was his favorite part of the memorized scriptures. His reply was the part where Jesus told his disciples to love one another as He had loved them. I thought his answer was intriguing. He didn’t choose the miracles Jesus performed, or the crucifixion and resurrection scenes as his favorites. Of all the scriptures he could have picked, he picked the one about humans loving one another.

On Friday night, I had another privilege of driving the youth from our church to see the Atlanta Passion Play. This is a fabulous performance put on by the First Baptist Church of Atlanta. It had been about fifteen years since the last time I saw it. There were many new scenes added to this performance. I especially loved the new scene about the creation of the world and God creating mankind. It was wonderful to see the reenactment of man being created out of the dust of the ground and woman being created out of man. My all time favorite scene is of Jesus walking on the water and then His power over the turbulent seas and winds. However, I was struck most this time by the comments Jesus made to His disciples at the last supper before His death. The book of John 13 - 16 records the last supper message. Throughout those scriptures, Jesus speaks repeated of love. He wanted His disciples to know the importance of loving each other. Specifically in John 15:12-13, Christ says, “This is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Seeing the visual of this at the program and hearing the words again that I had heard performed earlier during the week, really impacted my mind and heart as to how much Christ loved and wanted us to love others.

Over the weekend, I squeezed in a little down time to watch the movie, “The Blindside.” If you aren’t familiar with the movie, it is based on a true story about a white family who takes in a young, black, orphaned, teenage boy. They show great amounts of love to this young man by providing him with a home, new clothes, food, a private education, and a personal tutor. They treat him as one of their own children and strive to never make him feel different or of lesser value than their own biological children. This young man goes on to graduate and attend Ole Miss University on a full football scholarship where he eventually is recruited as a professional football player. It is a wonderfully moving film with a message resounding, once again, of love. Here was a prestigious, wealthy family who took the time to bless another individual and show him love so that he could make something of himself.

The message behind the movie got me to thinking once again about this recurring theme of love I had been considering all week. I am so thankful that God loves me. I am so thankful that God took time out of His extraordinary life to notice me, a spiritual orphan. I was a life destined for Hell with no hope of a future. I was a life scared by sin and blind to the fact that I needed help. Yet, one day, He allowed me to hear of His great love for me when He died on the cross for my sins. He convicted my heart of my lost condition and He offered His love to me…all I had to do was accept it. Thanks be to God; I did and it has made all the difference in my life. His love living in me has kept me off many wrong roads and kept me most importantly from a life of eternal death.

There was a scene in the movie I mentioned earlier when the family that is helping the young man asks him if he wants to legally become a part of their family and he accepts the offer. If he hadn’t, he may never have succeeded to the level he did in his life. I believe everyone is given at least one opportunity in this lifetime to choose to become a legal member of God’s family. He poured out His love on the cross by dying in mankind’s place for all the sins of the world. Christ died to become the world’s spiritual legal Father. The question I ask you now is this, have you accepted the offer?