the centrality of adoption

the following is copied from "Moments With You"   by Dennis and Barbara Rainey of Family Life Today

January 30
Adopting God's Heart

Vindicate the weak and fatherless; do justice to the afflicted and destitute.
Psalm 82:3
In his book Fields of the Fatherless, C. Thomas Davis writes, "If you searched the Bible from front to back, you'd find many issues close to God's heart. But you'd also notice three groups of people coming up again and again. They appear so many times, in fact, you have to conclude that God mentions them purposely to make sure they are at the top of our priority list."
They are orphans, widows and aliens (or strangers).
God demonstrated His care and provision for these three groups through His instructions to the Israelite farmers in Deuteronomy 24:19: "When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it. Leave it for the alien, the fatherless and the widow, so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands" (NIV).
Similarly, if we want our Christianity to be its purest, we too must actively exercise our concern for the left-out and the abandoned: "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world" (James 1:27-28).
Caring for the fatherless is not simply a compassionate act. Adoption is not merely an additional means of growing our families to the desired size. Caring for orphans is about obedience and expressing the heart of God.
Perhaps God is calling you to the redemptive task of adoption, as He has Barbara and me. If not, each of us can be part of supporting, praying for and encouraging those who are in the midst of adoption, those who are seeking to acquire God's heart for the fatherless
Discuss
Discuss how you can express the heart of God in caring for orphans. Also ask yourselves, Is there a reason why adopting a child would not be a possibility?
Pray
Promise the Father that you will pursue His heart for the fatherless and orphaned, in whatever way He directs you to do so--orphan care, foster care, adoption or mission work.

Wise Words from Ecclesiastes

Wisdom is a shelter
       as money is a shelter,
       but the advantage of knowledge is this:
       that wisdom preserves the life of its possessor.

Who is like the wise man?
       Who knows the explanation of things?
       Wisdom brightens a man's face
       and changes its hard appearance.

So I commend the enjoyment of life, because nothing is better for a man under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad. Then joy will accompany him in his work all the days of the life God has given him under the sun.

Ecclesiastes 9
 ¹³ I also saw under the sun this example of wisdom that greatly impressed me: ¹⁴ There was once a small city with only a few people in it. And a powerful king came against it, surrounded it and built huge siegeworks against it. ¹⁵ Now there lived in that city a man poor but wise, and he saved the city by his wisdom. But nobody remembered that poor man. ¹⁶ So I said, "Wisdom is better than strength." But the poor man's wisdom is despised, and his words are no longer heeded.
 ¹⁷ The quiet words of the wise are more to be heeded
       than the shouts of a ruler of fools.
 ¹⁸ Wisdom is better than weapons of war,
       but one sinner destroys much good.

Ecclesiastes 10
calmness can lay great errors to rest.

Ecclesiastes 12
 ¹³ Now all has been heard;
       here is the conclusion of the matter:
       Fear God and keep his commandments,
       for this is the whole duty of man.
 ¹⁴ For God will bring every deed into judgment,
       including every hidden thing,
       whether it is good or evil.