Editor’s note: This week is the annual Cry of the Orphan campaign and FamilyLife hopes you will become informed and involved. Listen for special broadcasts this week on FamilyLife Today. We would like you to meet adoptive mom Kerry Hasenbalg who is part of the Shaohanna’s Hope ministry team.

by Kerry Hasenbalg

A Father to the fatherless … is God in His holy dwelling. (Psalm 68:5)

Just as those of us who are parents feel the pains and offenses that come against our children as if we ourselves are being attacked, so, too, does God take personally what we do to His children.  The Lord said, “What you do to the least of these, you do to Me” (Matthew 25:40, paraphrased).

I found myself recently telling someone who does not have children, “If you want someone to like you, then you better be kind to their kids.  And even if you don’t understand this now, just believe me, you will when you become a parent.”

During the time that we were living in Northern Virginia, I received a call from Steven and Mary Beth Chapman’s sister-in-law, Yolanda Chapman.  She was calling about her son, Jordan, and his recent enrollment at George Washington University.  She wanted to know if it would be okay for Jordan to call on us if he ever needed some help.  She said “I am really relieved that you live close by because I know he’ll have a safe place to go if things ever get difficult for him.”

This is exactly what God is requesting of us—to be hospitable to His kids who are living close by.  If we really love God then we will show it by helping out His kids when they run into trouble.