“I will be a father to you,
and you shall be my sons and daughters,
says the Lord Almighty.”
2 Corinthians 6:18 (RSV)
I was touched by a true story about a ship in the Arabian Sea in 1942, that was carrying 740 Polish children who were rescued from German labor camps during the war, but lost their parents due to illness or starvation.
The British Empire controlled the region of India at the time, but refused them entry at port after port along the Indian coast. The news finally reached a palace on the western coast of India. The Prince ruling that area was named Digvijaysinhji Ranjitsinhji Jadeja, and he heard about the 740 orphans stranded on a ship. He could have silently looked away, like all the others did, but instead he decided,
“The British may control my ports, but they do not control my conscience.”
He ordered the rescue of all the children, providing homes for them and then convinced the Red Cross to get involved and together they provided food, shelter, medical aid and education, until Germany later surrendered and the children could be returned to their relatives in Poland.
It only took one man to stand against the mainstream of apathy during a very cruel period in history. That Prince who acted according to his conscience, changed the whole world for those orphans, and they grew up to live full lives. When the Prince died in 1966, the nation of Poland honored him by naming schools after him, but since his name was too long and hard to pronounce, they simply called him,
“The Good Maharaja.” The word Maharaja means Prince in the Indian dialect. In Warsaw there is also a public square called, “Good Maharaja Square.”
Our identity as Christians, is like those orphans who were treated with dignity and adopted by that Good Maharaja. Jesus is our Good Shepherd and the Prince of peace, whose whole ministry highlighted the message that His Father in Heaven is also our Father here and now. He taught through parables and action, that the love of God transcends all barriers of ethnicity, race, gender or social status.
We are all adopted children, according to the letters written to the Ephesians, Galatians and Romans. There are many scriptures that remind believers to live as beloved children which we are, and not orphans. We did not receive a spirit of slavery or fear, but a spirit of adoption, by which we cry out, “Abba, Father!”
(Romans 8:15)
I heard a woman speaker once say that some believers may be living more like orphans than children of their Heavenly Father. It made me think about the mindset of “orphan living.”
An orphan lives in fear, relying on outside sources for help, but a son or daughter goes first to their father. An orphan has many insecurities but a child knows they’re loved and wholeheartedly trusts their father. An orphan strives to earn someone’s love, but a child knows they are loved unconditionally.
As believers, Jesus gives us a new identity, and the Holy Spirit bears witness to our spirit, that we are children of God, not orphans, and all because of one good Prince, whose name is more powerful than any other name and yet easy to say-Jesus, who is our Prince, our Lord and our Savior.
Lord, help us to live as your sons and daughters should, not as orphans, so that we will place all our reliance on you, as you show us how to put compassion into action. Amen
Some of the orphans rescued by the Good Maharaja in 1942