As much as I don't like to look over my shoulder and see time slipping away so fast, the calendar tells me that another Christmas season is not too very far in the distant future. Another season to come and go, but one with new opportunities to Show Hope to orphans all the same. So, in case your thoughts have been directed towards December as mine have (hey, we're even listening to Christmas music once in awhile at my house!), I wanted to share with you a super idea that my aunt had to remember the lonely and forsaken in a time when most of us feel personally quite the opposite. She and her family plan to have an "orphan tree" at their house this holiday season, one decorated with laminated photos of needy children around the world. I immediately grabbed onto this idea and hope to implement it myself with a small tabletop tree my sister and I share in our room each Christmastime. While photos of orphans are hard to come by due to privacy acts and government regulations, they can be found with a little searching. Many organizations with sponsorship programs have photos of waiting children on their websites, and it is also fairly easy to find photo listings of foster children waiting to be adopted in the US. So, if you are so inclined, find some photos, make them into simple ornaments and hang them on your Christmas tree this season. Every time you see those little faces dangling between evergreen boughs and bits of tinsel, stop and say a prayer for those specific children. Ask that God would keep them safe and provide them loving Christian families soon. This project can be a superb reminder to pray for orphans and waiting children around the globe, as well as a reminder to get the focus off of ourselves in a season when the world is saying it's all about us and getting what we want. May God be glorified in our celebrations this holiday season!
picture: http://aruntx.com/html/203.html
4 comments:
Oh Annie! You have brought tears to my eyes. If I can get everything together now that we are home I plan on doing this. I am so glad you shared this.
Thank you for visiting my blog. I can't wait to meet you and talk with you about adoption. I hope we will be at church on Sunday. It has been a very hard transition with Eliana and she goes non stop so praying that we will be there.
Hi Mrs. Holmes!
Thanks so much for visiting my blog. I loved yours, and will be so excited to meet you and your precious Eliana sometime soon! My family and I actually live around 1.25 hours away from church (I know, we're crazy! Actually we do it because we love SBCC so much!), so there are some weeks when we don't get there, and unfortunately, that'll be the story for a few weeks. We have two in-town commitments on upcoming Sunday afternoons as well as a weekend getaway planned, so it may be a few weeks before I can meet you. When we do get back there, however, I will look for you! I love talking about adoption, even though I'm not old enough to do it myself! :)
We'll be praying for you all and Eliana with the big transition time. May God give you all grace and enable Eliana to just fit smoothly into your family and adjust to all the new things here in her new home. I'll be thinking of you often!
Hi Annie..
I am researching for our Christmas tree project and I will share what I find with you! Hugs and love... Aunt Alison
LOVE the idea!! :) I think I'll do it!
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