Orphans and Widows

The Bible says a lot about taking care of orphans and widows.  This may not seem surprising, but it is still worth unpacking a little.  Society back in the day was not very kind to kids who lost their parents or wives who lost their husbands.  Financially, legally, and socially these losses typically led to absolute and utter indigence.  It was a clarion cry to the early Christian community and an early calling card as to how they stood out, to care for the orphans and widows in their midst.

Thankfully, at least in the developed world orphans and widows are not necessarily destined for a future of beggary and loneliness.  But they are still in need of our compassionate.  And, it is not hard to consider who else might be considered the "orphans" and "widows" of our day, pulling the lens back on a strict adherence to those specific terms and thinking more broadly about who slips through society's cracks and is otherwise consigned to misery and abandonment but for our acts of mercy.

So here is my question to us so-called Christians.  If we're reading our Bibles, a commandment about orphans and widows is never far from us.  What are we hearing when we take those verses in?  And what are we doing?  Our earliest brethren distinguished themselves on this issue.  Have we and will we?