Step into the Mess
Inviting you to orphan care
Don’t make a mess!
Clean up your mess.
Look at this mess!
How many parents have said these words? Ever feel like a broken record? Kids are messy. They like to get dirty. They like to throw sand. They like to dump out boxes of tiny Legos and walk away. They like to finger paint and eat chalk. They tend to pull out every toy in search of the one. Can we get an amen? It can be maddening.
So, we come behind them with the broom, we clean their hands with a wipe, we plop them in the bath, we tell them to tidy up. Then we tell them again, again, and again until they actually do. We scold them for their messes….We clean up for Sundays. We hide clutter in closets. We post pictures that don’t show the laundry piled a mile high on the bed. Why? Because somewhere between childhood and adulthood, we’ve learned, “Messes are bad. Avoid them, or at least, hide them.”
That mantra gets embedded in our minds and weasels its way into bigger areas of our lives.
Messes are bad. Don’t tell your friends about your failing marriage.
Messes are bad. Mask your pain, wear a smile at church.
Messes are bad. Keep your sins a secret.
Messes are bad. Don’t get involved in orphan care–have you heard the horror stories?
God never asks us to avoid or hide our mess. No, he asks us to share them with each other (Galatians 6:12), bring them to Him (Psalm 55:22), and step into them to reach the lost (Matthew 28:19).
God may be a God of order, but he’s not afraid of the mess.
Jesus was born into a messy situation in the middle of a messy stable. He hung around messy people–lepers, adulterers, tax collectors, and the like! He suffered a messy trial and died a messy death! He stepped into the mess for us in order to make us sons and daughters. He stepped in to bring us home.
Said simply, Jesus modeled orphan care for us. Leave comfort. Step into the mess. Bring children home. Orphan Care is messy and will cause us pain, but no amount of mess or pain stopped Christ from entering our world and offering us sonship (John 3:16, Romans 8:14-16).
So what’s holding us back from stepping into the mess? What’s holding us back from saying yes to orphan care?
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