I think about adoption daily. Literally every single day adoption thoughts swirl inside my head.
I work in the adoption field. I’m part of adoption groups on social media. I have three adopted children. I think about adoption every single day. Every. Day.
It’s ingrained into the very fabric of my being.
I once heard the phrase at a church foster care training, “It was always our responsibility, never the government’s”. That phrase stuck with me sometimes aching my heart to the core. Those words hold so much power and truth. It was and is our responsibility to take care of the orphans and widows. James 1:27 says, “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained from the world.” The message of the Bible is clear. In fact it doesn’t get much clearer. Religion that is real and true is to care for the vulnerable among us, to meet vulnerable children right where they are and show them the love of Christ.
Adoption is at the very center of the gospel message. God speaks all throughout the New Testament of His adoption of us. In Romans 8 Paul says “For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs – heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ”.
So what does this mean? This means as children adopted by God we are his heirs. We are part of God’s family with the full standing of sons and daughters of the King!
Let that sink in. We have the full standing of sons and daughters of the King.
Wow.
When we were the most wretched of sinners he adopted us. Adoption flows from the very character of God. It is the basis of our salvation. Adoption is what gives us access to the Father. Adoption is what gives us life and hope, joy, peace, and every spiritual gift. He wanted us. The creator of the universe pursued us in our brokenness so that we could live with him in wholeness.
In this light, when I think about adoption in my own little world, it means to give my children life, to give them hope and to give them all the good things that they always deserved. Please understand that this isn’t me saving them. That’s not what I am talking about. This isn’t me rescuing them and being their “savior”. However, I am talking about giving them access to everything they naturally deserved.
There is huge loss and grief that surrounds adoption. It’s real. We have lived through some hard, barely survivable moments of grief. (I plan on discussing this in future posts.) My kids survived more loss and trauma in just a few short years than I have in my entire life. It’s sometimes easy to view their situation and feel overwhelmingly frustrated at the hand they were dealt. There is this conflict inside of me. I see the depth of their loss, but that loss brought them to us. As I think about their days before us I know that the first best option was for their biological family to be whole and healthy, for it to have worked… that would have been the perfect option, the best option.
It didn’t happen that way, and so adoption was the other best option. Not a second best, but a different best.
I view my children’s adoption as ANOTHER best option.
I’m going to get super spiritual here for a moment, but there is so much truth in what I’m about to write and I believe that it is so important to understand.
God’s perfect plan was for Adam and Eve to remain whole and without sin in the garden of Eden, but that didn’t happen. Jesus came as another best option. He wasn’t a second choice, but another best option. It is through Jesus that we are adopted into God’s kingdom. Adoption wasn’t the fall back plan for us as Christians, it was God’s other best option for us. Adoption isn’t a fall back plan for adopted children either. When the original separation happens from the birth family adoption becomes the other best option.
Adoption is so important not because we are “saving” these children, but because we are giving them another best option. We see the beauty of adoption woven through God’s perfect plan from the start of creation. As Christians we strive to be like Christ, to exhibit the characteristics of God, and to reflect him as much as possible. I feel like adoption is one of the most rewarding things we can do because it mirrors something that is so deeply central to God’s plan for mankind. Adoption is the heartbeat of God and we see that so clearly in the gift of salvation through Jesus. He was the other best option.
So why should we adopt… because these kids deserve another best option.