Remember, O LORD, what has befallen us; 

      look, and see our disgrace! 

            2       Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, 

      our homes to foreigners. 

            3       We have become orphans, fatherless; 

      our mothers are like widows. 

As children, I am sure we all remember stretching the limits with Mom and Dad until they finally called time on our disobedience and punished us deservedly. We also acted shocked and hurt that they could do such a thing. Well, we were warned, weren’t we? So were God’s children. All the way back in Deuteronomy, the consequences for disobedience were spelled out for them. Then, when it finally happened, they were in disbelief that God would do such a thing to them. Lamentations has that ring to it. They felt like orphans and widows, the outcasts of society. It was that very group of people that God commanded them to look after in the Levitical law. The nation had no one to blame but themselves but cried out to the Lord nonetheless for him to look at what he did.

The state of Christianity in America, by all accounts, is in dire straits. The church is less and less respected and seen by the culture to be on the wrong side of every hot button issue; abortion, LGBTQ, gun control, and climate change. We could start to feel like orphans and widows. Except we are not outcast. Praise the Lord! We are not orphans but have a heavenly Father who loves us and sent Jesus to die for us so we would not be widows but be the Bride of Christ. Our inheritance is secure in Christ…

Remember O man, what has been given us!

Pastor Brad Boyer
Cape Community Church