Adoption (part 2)
Romans 8:14-25 -
An application on Adoption -
God has a heart for the fatherless. When we are saved, the image is that the fatherless is adopted by God. Ezekiel 16 tells a graphic story of God finding a newborn baby girl (nation of Israel) who was dumped in a field and left to die, but God rescued her, washed her, provided for her, lavished His love and protection on her, and was heartbroken when she ran away. God doesn’t fault Himself for extending love to someone unworthy. In fact, that imagery of adoption is continued in the New Testament to bring in more people (non-Jews) into the family of God! God is the God who adopts the unworthy.
What should that imply about a Christian’s attitude toward the fatherless? Christians should have a proclivity toward adoption and the defense of the fatherless! If you don’t, then something doesn’t seem genuine, or at least not very well developed, about your own faith.
Yet, I find that many professing Christians are passively happy to ignore the opportunity (“I’m glad you’re adopting, but I don’t think I can”) or even actively antagonistic toward adoption (“you don’t know what you’re getting into!”).
In India there’s a hostile racism that has infected even the church with a Hindi phrase, “gunda khoon,” which means “dirty blood.” Christians avoid thinking about adoption because they don’t want someone with “dirty blood” affecting their family. They also provide excuses like, “I just don’t think I could ever love an adopted child like my own child.” That perspective is horrifically ungodly. You were adopted in Christ with “dirty blood” that He cleansed. And what follows in Romans 8 speaks of how much God is willing to lavish on His adopted children, as “co-heirs with Christ!”
What can you do for the fatherless?
Rescue those who are being led to death. That’s a direct command in Proverbs 24:11. Abortion is the focal point of this generation to obey that command. No one is more fatherless than the poor child whose father has paid an assassin to take his life or abandoned him so that his mother’s family would do the same. Christians made an impact in Rome because they rescued the unwanted babies (mainly girls) that were thrown in the streets and left to die. This is our heritage.
Open your home – and your table. The Old Testament gave several commands for the fields to have good harvest left in them for the fatherless and the widow to collect. This wasn’t a government or social-work handout. They still had the dignity of doing work and harvesting their own food. But there was generosity that allowed them to eat. Very few people these days have farms and raise food. But we do buy groceries and we still eat. There are plenty of kids all over the world who may not qualify as full-fledged orphans because they live with their mother, who works. But they are fatherless. They need a family. Teach your children to reach out and play with them. Invite them for meals. Let them know they can be as much a part of your family as they want, even without adoptive papers.
Become a foster parent, where that system is an option. This is hard work. You get kids who are from broken and dysfunctional families. They are often ill-mannered and undisciplined – and because they are wards of the state, you may not be able to provide good sense in a biblical fashion. But your love and acceptance of them can mold and shape them and will impact them for the rest of their lives!
Become an adoptive parent. Put forth the effort and expense to seek out the fatherless with a heart to lavish love and redemption to them. Some will respond with love and it will be an amazing experience. Some will respond like Israel in Ezekiel 16 and it will be a heartbreaking tragedy. There are no guarantees of even basic gratitude. But this is part of the suffering that we endure in the fellowship of Christ.
Note: Adoption is not something to pursue because you want to be a parent! Adoption is something to pursue because you’re convinced God has a heart for the fatherless and you’re convinced that a child has the right to a mother and father.
Support those who are fostering and adopting. Instead of being a Pontius Pilate, who washes your hands and says, ‘you asked for it, you deal with it,” humble yourself and become a Simon of Cyrene. “Can I help you?” Provide food, provide babysitting. Make sure the adoptive parents are getting some time to date each other. Bless them financially. Get your kids to interact with their kids. Part of the blessing of being adopted by a Christian family is having access to a larger Christian community. When someone in your church has pioneered the expense and vulnerability to rescue an orphan, you should be privileged to get behind them with every opportunity of support and let the new family member know that they not only have a mother and father, but a wide access to the beautiful family of God, all of whom are adopted.
Every church should have (1) a pro-life outreach to save babies and (2) at least one adoptive family.
What are we missing?