The Father of Compassion
I was reading about orphans in Morocco whose Christian foster parents are being deported. Assist News Service says that many children there are “abandoned at birth because they were illegitimate—a despised stigma in Muslim Morocco. Unwanted babies are often discarded in hospitals or left in trash bags to die.” The Christians who try to help these orphans face persecution. I cannot understand how anyone could place a precious child in a trash bag—the thought horrifies me. And yet, as Assist News Service explains, these children are “abandoned by a society that doesn’t value orphans.” I am baffled.
But then I began to wonder—would I recognize the treasure of a human life if God had not shown me that he values my own life? I know the true God as a loving Father. Galatians 4:4-6 tells us of this love:
But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”
God adopted me. God’s example of compassion teaches me what compassion means and how important it is. I pity those who have never experienced this kind of compassion. In their book Unveiling Islam, Ergun Mehmet Caner and Emir Fethi Caner explain how Allah is not a loving, compassionate father:
When Allah is discussed within the Islamic community, the absence of intimacy, atonement, and omnibenevolence becomes apparent. In all the terms and titles of Allah, one does not encounter terms of intimacy. In Christianity, we learn that each of us is a “temple of the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor. 6:19), suggesting immanence in the life of the believer. Jesus stresses this dimension in His Garden prayer on the night before the crucifixion. God is the Father, “Abba” (e.g., Mark 14:36), the term of endearment for a loving parent. Even the most faithful and devout Muslim refers to Allah only as servant to master; Allah is a distant sovereign. Some titles for Allah connote mercy, but it is a redefined mercy: Allah is merciful because he did not kill me or leave me in peril. Yahweh is a caring, loving, and intimately involved Father. (117)
God is a Father from whom no one can take us away. Although Christian foster parents in Morocco may be separated from their foster children, persecution cannot separate us from the love of God (Rom. 8:35-37). How thankful I am that we serve a compassionate Father!
To read more about Morocco, click here.
