The All Better Book is a book in which elementary school children try to solve some of the more difficult world problems, like what to do about global warming, or how to get people to stop smoking. Here’s one of the questions, these little minds deal with:  With billions of people in the world, someone should be able to figure out a system where no one is lonely. What do you suggest?

Kalani (age 8) suggested that someone should find lonely people and ask their name and address. Then ask people who aren’t lonely their name and address. When you have an even amount of each, assign lonely people and not lonely people together in the newspaper.

Max (age 9) had a bit more practical answer. Make food that talks to you when you eat. For instance it would say, “How are you doing?” and “What happened to you today?”

But it was Brian (age 8) who obviously spoke from personal experience when he wrote, “Sing a song. Stomp your feet. Read a book.  Sometimes I think no one loves me, so I do one of these.

Perhaps at no other season of the year are we more aware of our desire for an “us” than we are at Christmas.  Randy Frazee declares that God designed us with a connection requirement.  The Alameda County Study headed by a Harvard social scientist followed the lives of 7000 people over 9 years. Researchers found that the most isolated people were three times more likely to die over that time than those with strong relational connections. People who had bad health habits (such as smoking or alcohol use, lack of exercise or poor eating habits) but strong social ties lived significantly longer than disconnected, isolated people with great health habits.

In other words you can either get on that treadmill all alone or join a friend and eat all the Christmas cookies and candy you want! You choose, but Christmas with a friend will lead to a longer life! It is the “us” of our lives that brings us life.

Christmas is the story of our adoption into the family of God. Through Jesus we’re adopted into the family of God. This is why Christians love foster care and adoption, because it’s our story, the good news that God adopts us and brings us into his family, the church. Jesus came to put the “us” in Christmas.

In Psalm 68:6, the psalmist writes, “God puts the lonely in families.” What an amazing account of God’s love for adoption. At Calvary we have a growing movement of adoption and it is our great privilege and joy to help those who have a heart to open their homes to God’s placement service.

When you give to our ONE% offering — click ONE% for more info — you help God’s placement service. You help the lonely find a family. Please watch this video and praying about what you might give.