Orphans – The Stories and the Realities

At the Evangelical Portal at Patheos we are continuing our series on orphans and adoption.

A new author for us, Benjamin DeVan, reminds us that the fantasy and the reality of orphans and their plight are often quite different.  We like to think of orphans like those of Charles Dickens, or little orphan Annie, or even Harry Potter, plucky boys and girls, unspoiled by the riches of the world, who learn to overcome adversity, who struggle and succeed.

It’s a common enough story.  Does it betray the truth, however?  And does it actually serve to distract us from the needs of orphans and what we could do to meet those needs?

The orphans we see in Africa are certainly not Charles Dickens orphans.  The orphans we see in World Vision commercials, from South America, or even the orphans who live amongst us here, are not the fantasized versions.  God has called us to care for the widow and the orphan.  What have you done this day, this week, this month, to meet that need?  If the answer is ‘nothing,’ I wonder if you have comforted yourself with the fantasy of orphans that our culture gives us.

See the article, Orphan Stories.