John 14.13-18
I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.‘If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you for ever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.
‘I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you.
“I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you.”
Do you promise? I mean really promise? Isn’t this what our heart truly desires – to be told “Yes, I will be with you for ever.”
This year, as a congregation, our church is studying Christmas is Not Your Birthday for Advent. We’re being guided through this season of expectation, of want and desire. But what are we really wanting, and what are we really waiting for? I think at the heart of most of our wants is a desire for a purpose. I know I desperately crave a purpose in this life and a chance to feel like I’m at least trying to fulfill it.
What is my purpose? It might be the same as many of yours… it came to me because I finally heard these words whispered to me from above, “My child, I will not leave you”. It’s a feeling I think I first experienced high in the Appalachian Mountains. And again at some of the lowest moments in my life. I heard it in the churches of San Jose, Costa Rica, where children sang out “On a day like today, I need God!” In the slums on Delhi, India, where bare-foot children ran about crying out for attention with smiles and laughter. I felt it along the wall in Palestine, where school children play in shadows of armed guards. In the warmth of the Fiedler Atrium, where hundreds of school aged children received their very own school uniform.
Truly, can there be a better gift than the love of God? If so, I haven’t found it yet. So give it away by the truck load! Smiles, prayers, love like never before. Shout it! Until every child on this Earth, every person around hears, “You are a child of God, you are precious and you are loved!”
A prayer for the orphaned: God, we cry out today… every day… for those who are forgotten, neglected, alone. We know that You are the Protector of the weak, the Shelter for the cold, and that in You – because of grace – we are adopted! So, train our hearts to beat as Yours, cause our eyes to see as Yours, and move our hands to act as Yours.
Kat Kaden, Media Resources Manager, Chancel Choir Member, Rotunda Board Chair
