All God's children

The Monitor article "In gritty Karachi, husband-wife team saves unwanted babies" has a happy ending for many children who were abandoned (July 14).

The issue of abandoned children in various parts of the world tugs at the heart of many people, particularly those who have had to wait a long time to have very much wanted and longed-for children. The thought of any child being born unwanted is a painful one.

This situation is a call to prayer. One way to pray for these children is to turn to God for a deeper understanding of His love for His children, both the ones we usually think of as children and their parents, at least some of whom may be little more than children themselves. Each child, as the image and likeness of our Father-Mother God, already has a place in infinite Love – a place where he or she has an inheritance that nothing can take away.

Prayer can affirm that not one of God's children is unwanted, unplanned, or a mistake. Each life, each child, has a design in God's mothering and fathering purpose.

A mother might abandon her child for social or economic reasons, but in the metaphysical and spiritual concept of our being, there is a bigger view of our creation and parenthood: that of a Mother who loves and cares for all.

There is no doubting God's Mother-Love. When the question is asked whether a mother can forget her baby, the divine reply as recorded in the Bible is, "Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee" (Isa. 49:15). This perfect model gives us a deeper understanding of God's nature.

For many women in poverty and adverse circumstances, the experience of Hagar, as recorded in the Bible, paints a familiar picture. She was an Egyptian slave who bore a child for Abraham because it seemed at first that his wife, Sarah, was barren.

After she had her own child, Sarah ordered that Hagar be sent away. Hagar put her baby boy under a bush and walked away because their water was used up and she didn't want to see him die. Hagar wept. The Bible says: "And God heard the voice of the lad; and the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven, and said unto her, What aileth thee, Hagar? fear not; for God hath heard the voice of the lad where he is" (Gen. 21:17).

The account continues with what the angel told Hagar to do: "Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him in thine hand; for I will make him a great nation. And God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water; and she went, and filled the bottle with water, and gave the lad drink" (Gen. 21:18, 19).

Hagar's story has a message of God's love for all the children in the world who have been abandoned, and for their parents, too. In our prayers, we can affirm that God takes care of them all. That is the nature of divine Love. And this is a promise of God's love for all of us: "Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed, says the Lord, who has compassion on you" (Isa. 54:10, New American Standard).

It's only our limited sense of love that would put a limit on God's love or make it conditional. We can't judge the nature and character of God's love from a physical or material standpoint, since it is spiritual and beyond any limitation. All of us, as the children of God, have only a harmonious, unchangeable, and everlasting inheritance, which includes home and safety that nothing can take away. This is a creation of eternal good, which is wholly inclusive, where all God's children are cared for. None are left outside this universal love.

In the place where it was said unto them,
Ye are not my people;
there shall they be called
the children of the living God. Romans 9:26