God, A Father to the Fatherless: Foster Care

By Tina Jones

Children’s Ministry Director

“A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows,

is God in his holy dwelling.”

Psalm 68:5

Foster care. Everyone pictures an image when those words are said. Personally, I know the good and bad stories on every side of this “system” and how hard the social workers’ jobs are. I have seen children coming into the system and families

agreeing to take them into their homes. I have met biological parents whose lives have been turned upside down.

Foster care is a name given to a government system set up

to provide temporary housing for children and teens who,

for a myriad of reasons, do not have a safe place to live.

The fact is that it is an organization created by the federal government and run by the states. And to be honest, regardless of our feelings about any political party, something set up for a mass population can never be perfect. Not to mention that it involves children who are hurting, struggling adults, overworked staff and more trauma than you can imagine. It doesn’t bring up thoughts of family, stability, trustworthiness or anything beneficial or safe. And yet, I know it can be all of

those things.

What would it be like if this “foster care” were something

provided by God’s people?

Scripture gives us guidance on this. In fact, forty-two times the Bible mentions “the fatherless.” In researching those passages, it’s obvious we have clear instruction on taking care of the “fatherless.” God puts them in a group with widows, foreigners and the poor - those who had no one to be their safety net. Farmers were to only harvest their crops once and not go back to glean what was left on the vine or had dropped to the ground. They were to leave those crops for the “fatherless, the widows and the foreigners among them” (Deut. 24:19-22). In

those days, families would take in the children of other relatives when the parents were not capable (1 Tim. 5:8, Esther 2:7), and neighbors would step in when family was not available (Ex. 2:5-10). This is the kind of care exemplified by our God, “the father to the fatherless.”

I challenge believers to consider this: Could you open your home and

your heart to a child or a teen for a season?

Knowing from the beginning that you are not making a commitment for anything more than that. You are having a guest in your home and the opportunity to love on and provide for her in the way our heavenly Father would do. Experience baking cookies together, riding roller coasters, going to the skating rink, making popcorn and watching movies, listening when he opens his heart to you, and being that safety net he is lacking.

Perhaps you could form a caring community of friends to come alongside someone who is walking this road as a foster parent. Offer to fold their laundry, share a warm meal/week, babysit, drive children to visitations, help with homework or mow their lawn.

By serving others in this way, I believe our Father would be smiling, pleased that we are following in His example (Psalm 68:4-6, Hosea 14:3).

What are we doing about it today as God’s people? I see friends stepping into the gap time and time again, opening their homes to take in children they do not yet know. And opening their hearts to get to know one another.

I know a sweet widow in her 60’s who, after her husband passed, felt God telling her to open her home. She took in not one but two teenage boys. Seeing their immense need, she loved them so much that she ended up adopting them!

Many people have inferred, “Oh, I could never take a child in because I would get too attached to give her back.” And while I understand the thought, we are supposed to get attached, to care, to share. WE have been abundantly blessed not so we can store up the abundance for ourselves, but so we can give it away. The surplus square footage in our homes, the extra wisdom and experience we have, the abundance of skills, connections and unique opportunities we have been given. Let us see this blessing as something God has given us to share – to leave behind for others to glean. And to use this time to live out our faith in front of them (Deut. 11:18-20).

Author Bio: Tina is a wife to John and mom to seven (biological and adopted). After a lifetime of seeing vulnerable children land in loving homes, she longed to contribute to that kind of mission and eventually founded an adoption and foster ministry in her church. "When women with unexpected pregnancies are supported, lives are spared and we have opportunities to love like Jesus."