Often times our family of five picked up an elderly lady for church functions. She was rather large and we were cramped in the car but she always made me laugh. One day she told my dad how good looking he was and then followed up saying, "even though I am blind!" Then she elbowed me in the stomach and cracked up. She was a widow and my parents always said we were to take care of widows.
There are about eighty references to widows in the Scriptures. James 1: 27, "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." Psalm 68: 5, "A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling." 1 Timothy 5: 16, " If any woman who is a believer has widows in her care, she should continue to help them and not let the church be burdened with them, so that the church can help those widows who are really in need."
God keeps a careful eye on the widow. He is profoundly concerned for her, the stranger and the fatherless. Psalm 68: 5, "A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling." God commanded that Israel care for widows, not to isolate them or take advantage of their vulnerability. Deuteronomy 16: 14, "Be joyful at your festival—you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levites, the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns."
Think of those living without their spouses and pray for them. There are a lot of women and men hurting and grieving. "Being a widow is like folding a fitted sheet. No one really knows how."
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