ORPHANAGE OF THE WORLD

The orphanage of the world is a terrible place.  It is filled with children left by their father who was a liar, thief, and murderer.  No one leaves the orphanage, ever.  The orphanage is a miserable place, dark and cold and mildewed.  The sun never shines over this place, and it is cloudy all the time.  The halls of the orphanage are filled with children, dirty and smelly, who have never been cleaned, washed or bathed.  Wickedness reigns in this place.  The people at the orphanage are mean and nasty and wicked, having no compassion or love.  The children learn to be mean and nasty and wicked.  The orphanage is a hopeless place.  When a child dies in the orphanage, the body is dragged by foot or hand to the backyard where it rots with the dung.  The smell of excrement prevails at the orphanage, and it never goes away.  There is no plumbing or bathrooms, and so once a week the workers come to shovel the fecal matter and urine off the floor into carts to be dumped into the back yard.  It is the one time each week the children are allowed to go outside.  They go to the front yard where the fence is 20 feet high with barbed wire.  There is no grass to play in, but only hard dirt.  Most of the children fight during this time.  But there are a few children who are at the fence with their hands holding onto to the chain links.  They are looking beyond the orphanage, hoping that the story of a kind and wealthy man who adopts children is true.  They have never seen the man but in a very small way they hoped someday he would come and take them from this awful place.  One morning early the bell at the gate rings.  Most of the children wake up and complain that they have been stirred so early.  A few of the children look out the window to see who it is.  They see a man with a carriage pulled by twelve horses.  What a glorious sight.  Clearly, he was a man of importance and wealth.  The man waved to them as he sees them through the windows.  The few children wave back and as they see him go through the gate, they run down the stairs to the door.  As the door opens, the man opens his arms and tells them to "come."  He explains that he has done everything that they hoped, and that they have been adopted by him.  He tells them that "it is time to go home."  They run into his arms with joy, and leave the awful orphanage forever.  They truly gained all the riches of the world with this man.  But of more value was the fact that the man loved them all of their life. 

"For God chose us in Christ before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight.  In love He predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will - to the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the One He loves."  Ephesians 1.4-6.