This is Why- The Shape of Things To Come Part 1

This is Why. It’s been the theme of our stories and other content in The Voice of the Orphans this entire year.

And “This is Why” began as my own thought on one particular moment in time.

They were the words that popped into my head when I saw the heartbreaking picture of a widow and her three children. I took a good, long look at that picture. I looked at their tattered clothing. I looked at their distended bellies. I looked at their feet and fingers, literally mangled by the infestation of parasites. All of it sad. As sad as sad can be.

But, all of that aside, it was their eyes that it made my roaming gaze freeze. I blew up the picture and just sat there and stared for a solid minute. It’s what I saw in their eyes as well as what I didn’t see that spawned the phrase “This is Why.”

I saw sadness. I saw mistrust. I saw trauma. I didn’t see any hope. And I thought to myself, “this is why.” This is why we do this. This picture and all of the other pictures like it and what they represent.

But, as you read in earlier letters, life has changed dramatically for this widow and her innocent and fatherless children. They no longer live in a filthy, mud hut fit only for animals. Instead, they live in a modest, yet comfortable home that you built for them. They have been treated for their various ailments and are now healthy. They have a steady supply of nutritious food. They have been given God’s Word and now attend Bible study and worship services. We have introduced them to God and His son Jesus.

Their eyes now reflect hope for a much brighter future and smiles have replaced the sad and forlorn looks of the past.

And think of this. They are not unique to this mission. In fact, they are typical. Most of the children we care for have similar if not worse conditions in their past. Some were even babies discarded in trash heaps on the side of the road.

But you have heard all of this from me many times throughout the 23 years I have been writing to you about the plight of the orphans around the world. Because it is my job to be a voice for the voiceless. We are, in fact, The Voice of the Orphans that we care for.

Last month we talked about the mountains we are climbing in this mission. And the fact that we really are just heading in a direction; up a mountain that has no summit.

But there is another side to that coin. Another element to that visual concept to truly make the picture complete. Because all of this is the beginning of something very special. A shape. The shape of things to come.

This shape, as it were, is truly based upon simple math. Because math also has a shape when time and exponential factors are applied.

It’s like the rose bush in our front yard. We planted it years ago on the center of a round flower bed. It was a single, solitary branch with a small root, grown in a bucket of water. Now, for a few years it struggled and only produced a few tiny offshoots. But then at some point, it just took off. It had enough “offspring” that came from that single branch that they then multiplied at an unstoppable rate. That point, was the point of inflection. The point where the mathematical shape of that rose bush made its rate of growth exponentially stronger. The point at which it’s base was wide and it roots deep and firmly grounded in the soil. Now, despite the fact that I trim it back every year, it escapes its boundaries every year as well. It is a self-perpetuating entity that requires no help to be self-sustaining. It is trying to eat our yard.

All because it was nurtured to the point of inflection.

But there is another, far more powerful and relevant example of what I am writing about.

Consider this: When Andrew dropped everything and chose to follow Jesus, while there were many who believed in God at that point, Jesus was a prophecy yet to be fulfilled in the minds of most, and there was a strong resistance to the very concept of the Son of God walking among men. People died for that very belief. So, as far as disciples go, it began with Andrew. A single person and the first to be called upon by Jesus.

Now, putting aside the denominational factors, it doesn’t diminish that fact that there are now more than two and a half billion people that believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. From one follower to 2.5 billion in just over 2000 years. Not only does this show the power of exponential and generational factors on the growth and sustainability of  anything, but more importantly, shows how perfect God’s plan was when He sent His Son down to live among us.

But another key here is His disciples. They were willing to, and did die, proclaiming the truth that He is the Son of God. Without their faithful obedience and the subsequent generational teaching of God’s Word and therein, the story of Jesus, Christianity would have never reached the inflection point where it became an unstoppable force.

Another element of This is Why, is the very fact that God tells us that it is perfect religion to come to the aid of orphans and widows in their time of need and to keep ourselves unstained from the world. If He said it, it is certainly true.

The orphans and widows of the world, and all who suffer, are “the least of these.” Collectively, they represent a very large percentage of the earth’s population. Someone will have influence on their lives. Someone will teach them something. It will either be good or evil. There is no one more vulnerable than this population, and at the same time, no one more easily influenced by those who will give them what they need to survive. Because they have nothing. That source of survival will either be based upon good or evil motivations and the influence will have the same flavor.

There are roughly 719 million people that live in abject poverty on the earth. Two thirds of them are children. The most vulnerable. The most teachable. The most easily influenced.

If one person has become 2.6 billion, what will 719 million become? They are going to be a very big part of what this world looks like in the future, simply because children are the future and the world is failing them.

They are the shape of things to come... To be continued.