Corona Devo 383

Our family has recently adopted.

And a growing number of families in our community are adopting with us. I encourage you to consider "adoption" too.

I use the word "adopt" in a simple sense, but in the "best-we-can-do-right-now" sense.

We didn't adopt a child (quite the contrary). We didn't adopt a puppy and we didn't adopt a new doctrine, but rather, we are acting on an ancient doctrine spoken by God.

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.  ~James 1:27

Our family has a great-uncle (91 years and spunky!) in a local nursing home, and I pray for him and the residents often. Over the past year of isolation and quarantining, you and I have felt lonely and depressed at times, but what if you (still) couldn't leave your room or see any relatives? Life would be hard, I think.

So, we write Great Uncle Neal cards and send little packages, but as I drop them off at the front door of the facility (Monday's only), I began to have a sad pang for the other 29 residents in the facility that do not have family leaving a smile at the door for them on Monday's. The pang moved me to make 30 little bags to drop off the next Monday. I am not sure if it mattered to those on the other side of the door, but I hoped that they felt my heart and the love of God that caused the effort.

And now, in my old age, don’t set me aside.  Don’t abandon me when my strength is failing.  ~Psalm 71:9

No, we will not abandon you or set you aside in your old age. You are the grandparents who invested in us, the parents who raised our parents, the once-young-and-strong people that shaped our churches, businesses, our families, our Nation and us in the years before we began shaping our own lives, families and Nation.

It has been our privilege to "adopt" an outreach that we hope might: remind the older generations of yesterday (salt water taffy and Werther's candies donated), or fill an otherwise-lonely afternoon (crosswords, seek-and-finds, sudoku, comics and coloring pages donated), fill your tummy with a snack (Girl Scout cookies, crackers and jam, popcorn, candy bars, Rice Krispie Treats, homemade cookies, and hard candies donated) or care for you in some small physical or spiritual way (lotions and scripture cards donated).

The provision of friends, neighbors and the community has been beautiful, and dare-I-say, therapeutic.

But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.  ~ 1 Timothy 5:8

Providing for others, and in this case, the elderly causes us to think outside of ourselves. And I have seen it remind others (and myself) of the times and memories they spent with their grandparents. Of the cookies their gramma baked them or the board games shared in, or the dishes of hard candy that sat next to the sofa at a grandparents house. At first, 1 Timothy 5:8 almost sounds like it is wagging a lecturing finger at us to provide for relatives, but I have seen-in-others and felt-for-myself the benevolent consequences of doing so. It just feels right!

And, it is right. These elderly men and women have lived long and filled lives. They deserve respect and honor at this stage. I like how Leviticus puts it:

“You shall stand up before the gray head and honor the face of an old man, and you shall fear your God: I am the Lord.  ~Leviticus 19:32

How I long for the day when the doors to the nursing homes will open to visitors and family again, and we can (in honor and respect) stand up before the gray head and honor the face of an old man and woman. But until then, we are blessed to stand and honor them from afar and through care-package-bags with candies and word searches and notes of love from their community.

We are not changing the world, but in our small corner-of-the-world-way, I hope that we might be positively affecting someone within the walls of that nursing home. I am the first to admit that it's not much but it is something. Many times we love in word or talk but today, I encourage us to be moved to love another in deed and in truth.

But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.  ~I John 3:17-18

Blessings,

sarah

P.S. Please let me know if you would like to donate something, or go-for-it!.. and "adopt" your own local nursing home! 

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