Tuesday, April 23, 2024

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READ: Proverbs 21

The one who shuts his ears to the cry of the poor
will himself also call out and not be answered.
Proverbs 21:13 (CSB)

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Do me a favour, read Proverbs 21:13 one more time.

Sometimes to get the meaning of a verse you need to flip it on its head. For example, Proverbs 21:13 implies that those who do not shut their ears to the cry of the poor will be heard when they call out. This gives me some peace when things get rocky because I think we have done this as a family; we have not shut our ears to the cry of the poor.

I’m grateful for that flipped-on-its-head verse because for whatever reason my heart has been filled with fear for my family this week and I needed a verse to cling on to. Let me give you a window into the life of a foster family to explain a bit about what I mean.

There are many decisions you need to make when you choose to foster. There are pragmatic ones of course – but there are deeply emotional, relational, and spiritual ones as well. For example, “Will I truly love this child as if they were born of my DNA or not?”

We have always chosen to love any child in our home as if they were born there.

But they weren’t. Only two of our seven children were born from our bodies. Yet we love deeply and it’s risky because there is always a chance that something will drive itself between us and the subject of our love.

All parents fear the unknown when it comes to their children. We see the amber alerts and our eyes search the yard for our kids. We are invited to a Go-Fund-Me campaign for a toddler with cancer and our hearts skip a beat. We hear about the danger of online predators and shut down every device in our home.  

The foster parent has another set of fears. Fears that are stoked by everything from accusations against good families to changes in provincial and federal politics; changes that might mean your baby is moved from your home. This is the number one thing I hear from people when I tell them we are foster parents, “Oh I could never do it… I wouldn’t ever be able to say goodbye if they were taken from our home.”

We have said goodbye to 25 children.

I have dropped off my kids with their birth parents and drove away knowing I would never tuck them in at night again. Or kiss their knee when they fall off their bike. And that’s why I sometimes lie paralyzed next to one of my babies at bedtime and feel the grip of panic scratching up the inside of my throat.

For whatever reason, I’m feeling that panic again today. Truthfully, I’m writing this devotional as a way to take a breath. To help talk through my fear.

But it’s hard because even though I want to believe that flipped-on-its-head promise in Proverbs 21:13, another voice from my past lies and says, “Jesus doesn’t care. He is not safe to call out to. He doesn’t keep His promises.”

There are huge numbers of Christians who have taken “the fear of the Lord” and used it to make God fearful – even ferocious. And that is ticking me off.

Think about it, this proverb implies that God hears us when we call – particularly if we respond to the cry of the poor – but if God is an object of fear, why would I even want to call out to Him?

I’m writing these things down as my way of rejecting – again – this perverted picture of God. I don’t know what the future holds for my family but I refuse to believe that God would use our panic as a way to draw us close only to terrify us when we press in. I’m still sorting through the degree to which God sovereignly determines our steps – but I am resolute in my belief that God will never, ever respond in fury when He has promised love.

I am submitting to the truth of a flipped-on-its-head Proverb that promises that when we serve the most vulnerable God honours us by answering when we call out.