God so Loved the World that He Gave His Son: The greatest Spiritual battle ever fought – part twenty three
For the last few weeks the Holy Spirit has had me busy writing about our corrupt government. He may take me back there later but, for this week at least, He is directing me to take a little detour. On second thought, perhaps the subject I’ll be writing about today is not that much of a detour at all. I believe it may fit in exactly as one of the Spiritual battles of today!
Allow me to explain… as I was doing my daily Scripture reading this morning, something I read seemed to just jump off the pages at me, and I couldn’t get it off my mind. I was just starting the book of Isaiah, so I was reading in chapter one:
Isaiah 1:17 (NLT2)
17 Learn to do good. Seek justice. Help the oppressed. Defend the cause of orphans. Fight for the rights of widows.
After reading that, I stopped for a moment to ponder the plight of widows and orphans. What I have heard for years about the high cost of adoptions kept coming back to my thought process. As I considered the situation regarding children without a home, and the number of homes with couples wanting to have a child, I started to get upset. Almost angry! I kept asking myself the rhetorical question “why does it have to cost so much to adopt a child?” The high cost of adopting a child prohibits many couples from considering the possibility, before even starting. I then went on reading in Isaiah chapter one.
Isaiah 1:23 (NLT2)
23 Your leaders are rebels, the companions of thieves. All of them love bribes and demand payoffs, but they refuse to defend the cause of orphans or fight for the rights of widows.
Wow! There it was again! I realized at that moment, God was pointing out to me, how important this matter is to Him!
Just a quick clarification here… I am not leaving out widows as unimportant, or less important, than orphans at this point. It’s simply the one that the Holy Spirit was emphasizing to me.
James 1:27 (NLT2)
27 Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.
It was at this point that my wife Shirley and I talked a little bit about this subject. We agreed that we do reach out to help and visit widows who are in our circle of friends and acquaintances. But… what about orphans? I sure hope He isn’t asking us to start another family! Ouch! As I continued to talk to the Lord about orphans, He made it very clear to me that He was asking me to shine a light of love and concern on a subject that is very important to Him. So… I did a little digging:
Adoption is expensive in the United States because the process to legally adopt a baby/child requires the involvement of a lot of people: attorneys, social workers, physicians, government administrators, adoption specialists, counselors and more. This drives up the cost of adoption to ridiculous levels. $20,000 – $45,000 is the average cost of an adoption in the U.S. today. Do you think maybe there are too many hands out trying to make a profit in this endeavor???
I also found that the average cost of foster care, in lieu of adoption, runs between $5,700 and $8,900 per year, counting clothing allowance. That was referred to as “cheap” when compared to adoption costs.
So there it is… because foster care is sooo cheap, nothing needs to be done about the bureaucracy run amuck surrounding adoption!!! I’m not sure who needed to hear this, but if the Holy Spirit is urging us to do something by getting involved in some way, let’s do what He’s asking us to do. I promise you, He will do the rest! As the Apostle Paul said:
1 Corinthians 3:6 (NLT2)
6 I planted the seed in your hearts, and Apollos watered it, but it was God who made it grow.
a little late in replying, four or five years of foster care equals the cost of an adoption it looks like to me. the government could pay for or subsidize an adoption and greatly reduced the government’s cost per child. I can think of other ways the government could help but when has the government actually really helped.