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ADOPTED  4'?m1f Monologue: Salvation parallels to adoption

(based on a true story by Doug Fields)

I was in a real missionary mood. I was in Haiti, the poorest
nation in the western hemisphere, ministering to people who
lived in squalor. It's impossible to see people living like that
and not feel compassion for them. They were so poor that many
parents abandoned their children because they couldn't afford to
feed them.

Near the end of our trip, we went to one of the orphanages that
cares for these abandoned children. And we were given the
opportunity to "adopt" one of them by making a pledge of what
works out to less than one dollar per day. So, being in a
missionary mood, I decided to choose a child to pledge for.

Unlike people back home, who have only photos and brief
biographies to choose from, we missionaries were allowed to 
spend some time playing with the kids before we pledged our 
support to a specific child. Of course, I wanted a cute kid, so 
I could hang his picture on my refrigerator and boast about him 
to my friends.

With this in mind, I decided immediately to eliminate one little
girl at the orphanage because she was..., she was different. Most
Haitians are descended from African slaves. So their skin is
usually quite dark. This little girl was an albino. She had no
pigmentation in her skin at all. I certainly didn't want to take
a photo home to show my friends and then have to explain that
the other kids in the orphanage don't look like this. I mean,
it's no fun if you have to explain.

(deep breath) Alright,... I'll admit it. That's not the real
reason why I decided not to choose this little girl. She was
more than different. She was..., she was..., well she was ugly.
What else can I say? Having no pigment in her skin, she had no
protection from the tropical sun. Her lily white skin was
sunburned, blistered and cracked with open sores. Flies fed on
what oozed out from the sores. I didn't want a picture to remind
me of the sick feeling in my stomach every time I looked at her.
So, I decided that someone else can adopt that little girl. I
opted instead to pledge money for a cute little girl about the
same age, but who had a warm smile and a cute sense of humor.

When I told the head of the agency about my choice, he said.
"Oh, ah, yeah, that's fine. But, ah, she's a twin."

You guessed it. That cute little kid was the twin sister to the
ugly albino. If I adopted one I would have to adopt them both.
Bummer.

So, covering up my disappointment, and not wanting to appear to
be unChristian, I told him cheerfully, "Well, I was thinking
about pledging money for two orphans anyway." (smile melts, deep
breath)

A few weeks after I came home from my mission trip, I was
reading the Bible and came across the gospel passage where the
Pharisees were criticizing Jesus for eating with tax collectors
and sinners, to which Jesus replied, "It is not the healthy who
need a doctor, but the sick."

This made me think immediately of that little ugly albino girl
with oozing sores. That little girl was me. God chose me, not
because I was an example of sinless perfection, but he accepted
me warts and all, knowing that I was far short of his high
standards. But I'm sure that God had my ugly picture on his
refrigerator and when the angels ask "who is that ugly
misbehaving little girl?", He says proudly, "You only see her as
she is now. I see her as she will be."

�2013 Bob Snook. Conditions for use:
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