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Apr 29, 2021 08:00am

Why Not Consider Adoption?

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The gospel is the most beautiful story in history. God creates his own people, a people made in his image and likeness, a people meant to be in his family. In their sin, they rebel and push God away. Choosing independence from God, they become lost in a detrimental world. Lost and without hope, God adopts his image-bearers back into his family by paying the price for their rebellion, and he did so by making the ultimate sacrifice of love – giving himself unto death.

There is no greater sacrifice, and there is no more significant act of honor than God’s act of love. And God has done it to show that he loves us and deeply cares for us.

And in this act of love, God takes back his people as sons and daughters, bringing them from estrangement back into reconciliation and love – all through the cross of Jesus. What was lost is now found. The children are given a new name and a new identity in God’s Son, Jesus. They are given new hope for their future and new healing in the present. They are brought into the fold of safety, out from the dangers of harm, isolation, and sin.

At its core, this picture of salvation is the picture of adoption. Therefore, adoption represents precisely what God did for us what we couldn’t do for ourselves.

He rescued us.

What does this say about whose image we bear?

If we are made in God’s image, then we are meant to be the embodiment of God’s character and will on the earth. If this is so, then might we consider adoption?

I know that everyone is not “called” to adopt, but isn’t there room for consideration? Maybe, maybe not. It may not be realistic for you in this season of your life. And that’s totally fine.

I’m not Pharisee.

I don’t think that my convictions should be your convictions. Still, for those who are considering the adoption process, I want to urge you to deeply understand that we ourselves were adopted into God’s family, and through that adoption, we have been saved. This is a beautiful reality that we can activate in our own lives by adopting (or fostering) a child into a Christ-filled environment. (Our home.)

Adoption (and foster care) is a powerful picture of grace.

God’s family is a mixed family – something to be celebrated.

We have a tendency to want a nice and clean Instagram-worthy family, but might we consider a new ambition? God’s family is a multiethnic, cross-cultural family. Brothers and sisters in Christ come from all corners of the earth, and not one of them is more important than the other.

We might consider our own family bearing the image of God’s family by inviting other children of different ethnic backgrounds into our own. Just something to think about.

What I’m not saying.

I’m not saying that everyone should adopt or that everyone should strive to have a multiethnic family. I’m not saying those who do are better than those who don’t. It’s not realistic (and it’s legalistic) for me to demand that everyone have the same convictions.

However, my reason for writing is strictly to encourage those who are in a position to foster or adopt – those considering it.

So for those who are on the fence – let me encourage you that you were saved by adoption. God has brought you in from out of the darkness and called you “son” or “daughter.” Now with a new home and new family, you can live a new life in Christ, a new life of reconciliation and love, and a new life of joy and hope. All this because God set his love on you and adopted you into his family, marking you with a new name and sealing you into the most remarkable narrative ever told or known – the gospel of Jesus Christ.