He was just 10 months old and needed a mother to love him and take care of him. He was so cute and lovable that you would wonder why his birth mother didn’t take care of him and feed him. But that sometimes happens in the animal world. You see, Kecil was a baby orangutan, which means he looked very much like a monkey, as all orangutans do. The caretakers in the zoo where he was born took over his care, feeding him from a baby bottle and even playing with him. They all loved the cute little fellow.
Many of you children have mothers and fathers who love you and take good care of you. And then there are children in this world who don’t have even one parent, just like Kecil. These children are called orphans, and many live in large homes called orphanages. They are cared for by people who work at the orphanage. Sometimes these children have nobody to love them like your mother and father love you. As a result, some of these orphan children are sad as they grow up.
But you children who go to Sunday school learn about Jesus, who is the Saviour who loves every boy and girl and cares for them. However, there are many children who have never heard about Jesus and that He loves them and died for them. Nobody has ever told them about the Bible where they can learn about Jesus and that it says, “The Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:2020I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)). They have never heard that He wants every boy and girl to come to Him to have their sins washed away. They don’t know that He has promised a happy home in heaven for everybody whose sins are gone.
So it was a happy zoo home that the caretakers were hoping to find for Kecil. The caretakers in the zoo hoped they could find a new mother for him in another zoo. And happily, that’s just what happened.
The Chicago zoo had an older orangutan named Maggie. She not only had cared for and loved her own baby orangutans in the past, but she had also taken good care of another orphan baby orangutan some years earlier. So, the next step was to see if Maggie would accept Kecil and become his new mother.
The caretakers in the Chicago zoo introduced Kecil to Maggie, and thankfully, they accepted each other almost immediately. After 4 days they were sleeping together, and after 11 days, Maggie did not like it when the caretakers wanted to take him away from her so they could weigh him. Everyone is happy that Maggie is officially his new mother and is taking very good care of him.
And that’s how Jesus wants to care for all children. Now many of you children have parents who love you very much and take care of your needs. However, there is one thing they cannot do for you: They cannot wash away your sins. Only Jesus can do that. He will wash away all your sins, if you will let Him. And then He will show you His love in many, many ways all through your life, until one day He will take you to His happy home in heaven. “Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood” (Revelation 1:55And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, (Revelation 1:5)).
Will you tell Him you are a sinner and want Him to wash you clean from all your sins?
Then one day He will welcome you to His happy home in heaven.
ML-03/01/2015