When I was 16 years old I had a fender bender on my way to church. Nothing major but it was my first little bump in the road while driving. The first thing I did was run across the street to the Popeyes and call my Daddy. He was calm and reassuring and he was there in just a few minutes. There was zero damage to the cars and the police man asked the other driver why she had called him in the first place. My dad gave me hug, reminded me to pay attention and followed me the rest of the way to youth choir.
I found out many years later that the other driver made things very difficult. Tried to get lots of money, etc. My Daddy took care of all of that. I never knew it was happening. He was my defender.
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Circa 1980 headed to Indian Princesses
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When he died suddenly in 2004 I remember feeling so vulnerable. I was a 33 year old woman with two children of my own, but I was very suddenly fatherless. I had lost my defender. I took great comfort in Deuteronomy 10:17-18
For the Lord your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow and loves the alien giving him food and clothing.
Weighing on my heart this week is another fatherless little girl.
She's not actually fatherless anymore. She has a Baba who can not wait to hold her, but she doesn't know or understand that. And she has been fatherless. But she has not been without a defender.
As I have sought out more information about her orphanage this week and the situation there and all I can about her and her needs my heart has been heavy. How I long to hold her, to rock her. To teach her Bible verses and songs. My heart breaks for the things she has missed. Playdough and Paint and Hide and Seek. We have so much to do and I am aching to do it! As I poured my heart out to the Lord yesterday over and over in my mind came these words...
"A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows is God in His Holy place."
Psalms 68:5
These words which brought me so much comfort 9 years ago again brought peace to my heart. I went to my Bible to look up the verse and I found written in the margin, "Thank you Lord for this promise!"
I looked up all the verses from the concordance under "fatherless" and everyone of them was already underlined. I was reminded of the comfort I found in God's word during those hard, hard days. What a precious thing to claim these promises again for my daughter.
The China adoption community is a bit weary this week. It's been a rough month. The central adoption authority was closed for a week to install a new computer system. That was 2 1/2 weeks ago and it's still not working. Nothing is being issued out of China. This week we learned that the US consulate will close for almost 2 weeks in July to move offices. No appointments will be given. These two things combined will push a lot of people who should be traveling now another month out. All of these children need medical care, some are critically ill. We have seen one family have to walk a road that we can not imagine having to walk. We are all tired, we are weary, we want to get our fatherless children HOME.
While my heart is aching for Sarah, while I know that I would do anything for her I also know who her defender is. The world she lives in may shun her. They may not see her value. But her defender is mighty!
Do not encroach on the fields of the fatherless, for their defender is strong!
Proverbs 23: 10-11
As much as I love her, He loves her more. As much as I long to know all about her, He already knows. He knows the things I will never know. None of these delays and trials have caught him off guard. He knows all of these children and where they are.
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| July 2004 |
I love this picture of my Daddy. He is watching for my brother in a race. He was always watching for us, watching out for us, planning for us. He was a great defender and I am proud to still be known as Jobie Melton's daughter to many people. He would be so excited to be Sarah's grandaddy. He left a great legacy for my brothers and I and our children. For Sarah.
I love the song with the line, "Hello, my name is...Child of the one true king!" I am claiming that for Sarah. Claiming the promise that her defender is mighty and awesome. I'm claiming it for all the chldren whose faces and names I now know.
Their defender is strong!
