Dear God . . . Thank you for my parents. Most of my friends are orphans.
What a sweet prayer this is, my young friend! And I rejoice with you that you have a mom and dad who love you! This is Wess Stafford, President of Compassion International. One of literature's most famous orphans was Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist. Literally worked to the bone, Oliver was starved — deliberately so. Dickens used the devastating image of Oliver to counter the complacent belief that the poor are completely responsible for their own situation. That somehow they need to pull themselves up by their bootstraps. When that attitude prevails, the poor continue to suffer. Today the message we must reinforce is a message of compassion. Jesus said emphatically, "What you do for the least of these, you do for me!" This is Wess Stafford. Speak up with compassion for the poor — the orphans of this world!
