Thoughts on living as Children of an Adopting God
I am partial to adoption. No surprises there, right? That is, after all, what one would expect to hear from an adoptive parent. While I have to admit that opening our home to a former orphan has done nothing if not increased our family’s love for adoption, it is actually not the grounds for my delight in it. No, I love adoption because I am adopted. In fact, you might even say that I am doubly adopted.
Those of you who know me well enough know that I am speaking theologically and not biologically. Perhaps you are asking then how could I be “doubly” adopted? It very simple actually. As one who clearly biblically qualifies as a gentile, yet who, by God grace, has been granted saving faith in Christ, I am adopted into an adopted people . God sought Israel, adopted them and then God sought me and adopted me or “grafted me” into an adopted people; doubly adopted by a doubly gracious God. (Eph. 1:5, Rom. 9:4; 11:11-36)
It is important for us to understand this as Christians, because if we do not see that God is an adopting God, we miss a key part of His character. It is our adopting God who calls those who were not his people, “My people” and our adopting God who specifically calls the simple in order to shame the wise and the weak in order to shame the strong that in all things He might be known as the provider, the strengthener, the sustainer and the redeemer. God adopts weak, flawed, and sinful people like me and like you that he might be Glorified by His marvelous grace in us and to us.
As we think through the issues surrounding the sanctity of Human life in our culture, we must not forget our adoption into Christ and be ready to grant mercy in the same way that mercy has been granted to us. We must continue to stand against the taking of innocent human life, but we must not do so to the exclusion of the clear command of scripture to look after orphans and widows in their distress (James 1:27). To follow in the steps of Christ we must not only defend the innocent and the helpless, we must shelter them (James 2:16). For some of us, this may mean the giving of money, for some it may mean opening our homes to foster care, for many of us still, this will mean adoption of one or more orphans.
While I do not believe that all of us are called to invest ourselves as adoptive parents, I do believe that many more of us should be opening our homes to orphans than are currently doing so. As you consider how you will obey God’s call to care for the helpless, I would challenge you to sort through your reservations and to strip away those things which are actually issues of personal convenience. To put it mildly and somewhat understated, dear Christian, there is no inconvenience you may undergo or trial you may suffer in the adoption of an orphan that will in any way compare with the inconvenience and the trials suffered by Christ to adopt you.
On that note, I want to urge you in light of God’ s mercy and provision to you both spiritual and material, to consider opening your home to an orphan who is truly in need. Recent statistics estimate there are over 43 million orphaned children in Africa alone, not to mention the rest of the world. I urge you to resist the temptation to quantify your ability to provide based on American standards and thus excuse yourself for sake of a perceived lack. The sad fact is that most of our dogs have a higher quality of life that many of these waiting orphans. Even in these troubled economic times, Christians in the U.S. will spend untold thousands this year on flat screen televisions, surround sound systems, cable subscriptions and every other type of imaginable entertainment. We will spend thousands of hours at ball parks, holding fishing rods, playing golf and shopping. I pray that our investments in obedience and Christ-like mercy will out weigh them and that, somehow, God might be able to say to us in that final day, well-done my good and faithful servants.
In the core of my soul, I love adoption because I know that I am adopted, and that at a great cost to my Lord. If you are adopted, I pray you would “count the cost” and love it too.
Adopted in Him,
David
