Fields of the Fatherless...

When I started reaching out to families that were in the midst of the adoption process I usually asked a couple questions, introduced myself etc. I happened to read one of Jenn's post over at Pure & Lasting and she had just ordered a few books off Amazon to add to her reading list while they wait and prepare to bring Maya home from Ethiopia. When I contacted her and asked what she recommend I read, something kind of light to start with, put things in perspective, something to encourage me. She mentioned Fields of the Fatherless by Tom Davis.

I asked her this questions oh months and months ago!! I finally have gotten around to reading this book. Let me just tell you how much I love it, how encouraged, broken and grateful I am all at the same time. This book although it does speak to adoption, encourages adoption as a way to live out the Gospel here on Earth it also goes much broader than that. (If you follow me on twitter, @lydiaandme, you have noticed a lot of evenings lately I have tweeted a little something that resonated with me that evening and I just felt like sharing)

This book is truly all about discovering how to live a compassionate life. It pulls from the parallels of God's adoption of us into his family and adopting orphans into our families. However, it reaches even further by encouraging us to reach out to those that God loved the most, those that are consistently mentioned in the Bible as God loves, heals, and weeps with the least of these. The orphans, the widows, the strangers.

It is more than just adopting because truly I don't think everyone is called to adopt. I don't believe that everyone has the right conditions or the patience or the time to help a child who has experienced such a huge loss. BUT I do believe that God wants us to live a life of compassion. He showed us how to do this, he showed us how to love others, isn't that what life is all about? Loving others and being the body of Christ in our communities. It is about putting that love, our faith, our compassion into action!

If you are looking for a book that will help you understand why a friend or a family member is considering adoption as a way to grow their family but maybe you don't completely comprehend why they would do such a thing, read this book! If you are looking for a way to understand one of the most important ways we are to live out the Gospel here on earth by loving those that Jesus loved and being Jesus to those who have not opened their hearts to Him, read this book!

I am ready to follow Jesus into the Fields of the Fatherless and let him work through me, I hope you will join!

"Each of us can do something to alter the life of at least one person whom God loves and cherishes" -Tom Davis