( I know, I know, I am supposed to write every day...I am trying to be disciplined, but some days it is just nearly impossible to find time to write.)

Today, while reading my bible I came across this scripture, "Sing, O childless woman, you who never gave birth! Break into loud joyful song...For the desolate woman now has more children than the woman who lives with her husband. Enlarge your house, build an addition, spread out your home, and spare no expense! For soon you will be bursting at the seems. Your descendants will occupy other nations and resettle ruined cities. Fear not; You will no longer remember the shame of your youth and the sorrows of widowhood. For your creator will be your husband; the Lord of heavens is his name." - Isaiah 54:1-5

To be childless at this time in history was a woman's great shame, a disgrace. Families depended on children for survival, especially when the parents became elderly. Israel was unfruitful, like a childless woman, but God would permit her to have many children and change her mourning into singing.

In those days family was necessary to survive; parents cared for children, and then children in turn cared for their aging parents. In scripture, God promises to be the husband to the widow and the father to the orphan. When God formed the family, he ultimately had provision in mind.

What have we done? The nuclear family is almost extinct. In America divorce runs rampant. Children go without the leadership of a father or the comfort of a mother here. We place our elderly in homes run by strangers. Where is the unity which God created ?

I have been working with the elderly for more than 15 years now. During the past five years I have been with a woman who resides in a nursing home (I usually help people stay in their own homes). Being there as been an eye opening experience. Many of the residents have been shut away there, behind doors of excuse, waiting for the family whom they raised to come for a 15 minute visit, only to leave again, having appeased what is left of their own conscious.

So many families place their parents in a nursing home unnecessarily. There is much to be learned from aging and death. There are reasons that we are to nurture and care patiently for the parents who did the same for us in our youth. Our society has become narcissistic in nature. We are the "me" generation.  The strange thing is that this same society idolizes their children and neglects their elderly.

In the days of the bible children were important for survival. God had made a unit that would be self sufficient throughout the seasons and ages, fashioned much like His trinity, made to function in specific roles together so closely that even thought they were individuals, the unit was one.

Other societies do not even have retirement homes. European and Asian cultures still care for their aging parents. Their children are exposed to the wisdom of a long life and the natural turn of a immanent death. In America we have turned the tables somehow...many practically idolize their children. The child gets whatever they want, they are catered to and served with out boundaries or consequences...and we are beginning to see the effects in our culture.

Is it possible that God set us in families very much on purpose, and our deviating from his plan is resulting in the chaos we see abounding here? Is it possible that we need each other and that our spirits need the humbling effect of needing help to do even the most menial things, both when we arrive in this world, and as we ready to depart?

We are fallen creatures, and as if we were back in the days of Nimrod (Genesis 10) we build and conquer and enlarge our territories, striving to be our very own provider, our very own god. We strive like those who built the city of Babel, to reach the heavens by our own invention and with our own hand, as to not need the pesky creator who is actually the only one able to provide what we need.

We take every good place where God has created order and design, and we try to mold it into what we think will be a sturdy high tower to be awed, and as we tear apart what he has put together, we tear at the very fabric of our basic needs.

The repercussions of our actions are showing up in the news every day. Chaos abounds. Order is no more. Structure is no where to be found. We are floundering in a deadly sea of our own making.

Wherever their is lack in your life because of this broken world, God promises to provide. Even if you are alone, God promises to be you Husband and you Father...God is able to provide for you. He is able to restore what man has torn apart. Wherever you have lack, you can allow Jesus to come along side you and have abundance.

In this crazy time of self glorification, I am glad to have a perfect Husband and Father to care for me.

"No I will not abandon you as orphans - I will come to you." - John 14:18

We serve a God who knows what we need. He loves us and is able to be everything that we require. Wherever there is a need in your life, call out to the Lord and he himself will fill it to overflowing. Before you know it you will be encouraging others who are in need and sharing His perfect love.