Foster Care and Faith: Embracing God’s Call to Care for Vulnerable Children

Growing up in an idyllic small town on the South Coast, I didn’t have much exposure to foster care or adoption, my knowledge was limited to what I read in books or saw in movies. That is, until the day I read a newspaper article. I can’t remember what was written in that article, but whatever the author had written about foster care, God used it to change my heart and the entire course of my life. I was studying my Bachelor of Social Work at the time, and I immediately decided that I wanted to work with vulnerable children and families in the foster care system.  

Since that fateful day, I have worked with the government’s child protection department, I have become an authorised carer, and after receiving further theological training, I am now working as a chaplain with Anglicare’s foster care and adoption team. As a follower of Jesus, God has put vulnerable children in the foster care system on my heart. This has led me to doing more reading and thinking about what the Bible has to say about foster care, and what this means for the lives of Christians in our local churches. 

In their book “Home for Good”¹, Krish and Miriam Kandiah speak about the biblical mandate and motivation for foster care. I have adopted this framework as I think it’s a helpful way for us to consider what God has to say to us regarding how we are to care for vulnerable children in foster care. As we explore this biblical mandate and motivation, we will consider what this looks like in our lives as disciples of Christ. 

The Biblical Mandate

When Jesus was asked “which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” he responded this way: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’” (Matthew 22:36-39). When Jesus was asked “and who is my neighbour?” he went on to tell the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37), teaching us that to love our neighbour is to offer solace and care to anyone who comes across our path who is suffering and in need of help. There are children in our communities who are in desperate need of this solace and care, they are lonely and in distress and need a family to care for them in their time of need. 

When God gave his laws and explained to Israel how they were to live as his people, he explicitly details that they are to care for the orphan in their midst.² Whilst most children in the foster care system aren’t orphans, for different reasons they are unable to be cared for by their parents. God’s mandate in the Bible is clear; his call to love our neighbour, his call to care for the orphan, is a call to care for the child in foster care. It is not an optional extra. We see this God speaks through the prophet Isaiah. He says to Judah, “Take your evil deeds out of my sight! Stop doing wrong, learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.” (Isa 1:16b-17). God’s judgment is coming upon Judah because they haven’t been “defending the cause of the fatherless”. This command wasn’t limited to God’s people in the Old Testament. James writes to the Jewish-Christian diaspora, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” (Jas 1:27). These verses, amongst others, have convicted me that caring for vulnerable children in foster care is not an optional extra, it is an integral part of our worship of our Heavenly Father. This is the biblical mandate we have received.

The Biblical Motivation

At the heart of the Christian message is God’s sacrificial love for us. Paul states that “God demonstrates his own love for us in this. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Rom 5:8). God’s motivation for sending Jesus into the world is His great love for us. And that love came at a great cost, the death of his beloved Son. God’s love is also the thing that motivates him to include us in his family; “In lovehe predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.” (Eph 1:4b-6). Because of God’s sacrificial love, He has adopted us as his children, with full access to all the benefits that entails. What greater motivation could we possibly have than to show that same love to some of the most vulnerable children in our communities by bringing them into our families as God has brought us into His?

Being agents of God’s sacrificial love to us is the natural outworking of what we have received. We see John exhorting the early church in this way:

“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth. This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence.” (1Jn 3:16-19). 

Because Jesus laid down his life for us, how can we do anything but show that same love to others, especially those who are in need? And this love cannot be restricted to words, it must be lived out in action, in good works towards those who are in need. This is our biblical motivation. 

Living as Disciples of Christ

Hopefully, you feel the weight of the biblical mandate and motivation for foster care as I do. I know, however, that considering how to help vulnerable children can feel daunting. But the good news is that Jesus didn’t leave us alone—he sent the Holy Spirit to equip us. Jesus even used the language of orphans when he promised, “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you” (John 14:18). 

Knowing the Spirit strengthens and guides us should instill confidence to live out this calling. Does this mean that everyone is called to become a foster carer? Paul answers this in 1 Corinthians 12: “There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit...to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good” (1 Corinthians 12:4-5, 7). We’re all gifted differently, and each gift supports the body of Christ. 

This means that while we’re not all called to do the same thing, we are all called to do something. Some of us are called to become foster carers, while others can support carers through financial or material assistance, prayer, pastoral support, babysitting, cooking meals, or even mowing a lawn.  

I hope you’re convicted, as I am, that God has given us a clear mandate and motivation to love vulnerable children in foster care. It’s my prayer that you and your church might seek ways to love the orphans in your midst, all to the glory of God. 

Rev Bethany Downes, OOHC Chaplain