“Sometimes I feel like a motherless child…” so begins the old blues song. The reason the blues have been so influential and enduring is they accurately describe the way we feel. All of us recognize that line. We’ve all felt like that at one time or another.
There are a lot of people who feel that way now.
In the early church, it wasn’t unusual for new believers to show up at a church having lost everything. Once they decided to become a follower of Christ, some would have been disowned by their families. Young men and young women would have been thrown into the streets with no place to go. So they would go to the church.
And the church would take them in. They would be given a family—a mom, a dad, brothers and sisters. They would be given a home.
Now, we live in a culture where families break up and leave many emotionally, physically, and spiritually homeless. So they come to the church.
The postmodern church has to relearn this survival skill of taking in “orphans.” Senior adults have to become more engaged with young adults. Young adults have to be open to relationships with senior adults. Friends have to take friendship more seriously. Young men should start viewing young women in their church as sisters and the young women should see young men as their brothers. Both should look out for each other.
One of the most powerful witnesses of the early church was their love for each other.
Once again, the love we have for each other will be one of our strongest messages to our postmodern world. This is why the New Testament emphasizes the metaphor of “family” for the people of God.
It’s God way of making sure there are no orphans in His world.
