To Encourage You

Psalm 68:5 “Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation.”

You know the saying, “out of sight, out of mind.”  It’s the idea that it’s so easy to forget people who are not visible to us or present with us.  For some reason, that saying came to mind as I read the short verse above this morning.  It reminded me of one of the things that God is thinking about this morning.  It reminded me that there are many who are “out of sight and out of mind” of so many today, but they are most certainly not out of sight or out of mind of Him. 

Some time ago I read a story about the migrants that were amassed at the U.S. border at that time. Regardless of how you see this situation from a political standpoint, it is a tragic situation for the families that are involved. So many parents and children from Central American countries live in horrible and dangerous situations and find themselves between a rock and a hard place as they flee for America with no idea whether they’ll be able to successfully enter this country or not.  The situation is desperate, but I’ve not been thinking much about it. Have you?  There are others living in homeless conditions within our own country at this very moment.  They live in squalor.  It’s a desperate situation.  Has it been much on your mind?  Then there are the children living in our local school district who are in tragic situations. Divorce, poverty, and disfunction is their daily reality, but do I think about it much? Do I really care?  Am I looking around me today to see those in need, or am I ok with an “out of sight, out of mind” attitude regarding them? 

You see, God would have us to know that that’s not ok.  Jesus would have us to remember that the church is His body, and the way He has ordained that He care for the fatherless, widows, and so many others who are in need is by way of the eyes, ears, hands, and feet of those who are the members of His body (1 Corinthians 12:27).  He would have us to be about what He is about, and to be thinking about what’s on His mind. That’s why He has provided us with reminders like the verse above.  That’s why He’s told us such things as “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world” (James 1:27). It’s why He has asked us, “Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?” (Isaiah 58:6-7).

So, is that what we see today? Is that what’s on our mind? Or does “out of sight, out of mind” describe us, when we know that the God Whom we say we serve is thinking and also wants us to be thinking otherwise?