“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress…”
James 1:27
In the verse above, God calls us to look after widows in their distress. This past week God has placed a very special woman in my team’s path for us to love, care for, and encourage as she overcomes the loss of her husband five months prior.
The first day my team and I (12 of us total) were introduced to her, we were coming to her house to clean and do yard work. When we arrived, we got started pretty quickly. The house was not in good shape. The conditions were unlivable. There were infestations, dirty dishes and clutter in various places. You could tell much of the house hadn’t been touched in a long time.
Some of our team worked to pull up weeds, cut the grass, and collect trash scattered around the outside of the house. The rest of our team worked on the inside, wiping down and cleaning out cabinets, washing dishes (there were a lot of them), cleaning out the bathroom, the fridge, sweeping and moping.
When we first arrived, it appeared there wasn’t much hope. After we left, God had restored some of that hope to the lady we had come to serve. God also brought healing. While many of us were working, there were times when two of the women on our team were sitting with her, consoling and talking with her. The next day some of us came back and we saw something wonderful. By God’s grace, she was up and cleaning her patio and doing laundry. She had motivation, where before there was none.
God has called us to look after orphans and widows. This was a powerful demonstration for me of God’s heart for widows. God never forgot about her, and in fact brought our team all the way here to love, to encourage, and to serve her. How wonderful is God’s love that he would send the 12 of us across countries to love a single widow, to show her she is not forgotten and not alone.
Sunday came and during the church service Pastor Peter asked for the same lady whom we came to visit to stand and come to the front. That day, many men and women from the congregation lined up to hug her and express their love. It had been a year since the last time she had been to church, and on her first day back she was surrounded by the love of the church. How great is God’s love.
