So the big question, “Why Adoption?”

I cannot really put into words all the emotions and thoughts running thru my mind as we are looking into what it means to adopt a little child. Surprisingly, it is not fear, anxiety, or doubt. Of course, there is a lot of questions we have related to logistics, adjustments, and finances, but there is no question about this being God’s specific plan for our lives and our family. It is important to first note there is a difference in having specific questions and questioning God and His call. I am fully convinced as followers of Christ, we can be absolutely sure of God’s call for specific actions in our lives. 2 Peter 1:10, “Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure.” This passage is telling us how we can be sure we are called by God, both for salvation and for our specific actions in our lives. He is not a God of confusion, but a God of clarity.

So, “why adoption?” Overall, I want to be clear as to what the overarching reason is, and I believe to adequately convey that message, I will to begin by listing things that ARE NOT the primary reasons we are adopting.

First, we are not adopting to save this child or children from their current state of living, meaning their poverty, lack of possessions, and very little hope for a prosperous future.  Often when we see images and hear stories of what children around the world grow up in, we want to rush to rescue them from their living conditions. There is no doubt that seeing those images stirs our hearts with compassion for them and we should “help even the least of them”. It is not uncommon for people to begin, and even go thru with, the adoption process because they want to “rescue” these children from such conditions. The problem with that reason is, what distinguishes us from American Idol Gives Back? While there is no doubt we are bringing them to better living conditions, but this is not why we are adopting.

Second, we are not adopting out of a sense of duty or a command of obedience. The Word is clear that we are “to look after orphans and widows in their distress” (James 1:27). Here the term “look after” means “to take responsibility for”. We as the church are to look after and care for orphans, but there is a multiplicity of ways to do this. Examples include helping families adopt financially, logistically, prayerfully, helping them after they adopt, supporting adoption agencies, etc.

Third, we are not adopting out of a debt of gratitude. In other words, we are not adopting because we feel like we need to pay God back because He has been so good to us. A lot of times, there is a danger when we receive God’s blessings that we feel obligated to “pay Him back”. God is very clear that He gives us things, even talents and gifts, for the building up of His church and to reach the lost, “Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms,” (1 Pet 4:10). However, 2 Corinthians 9:7 says, “Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” Tying these two together show that we are not to give for any other reason than out of the joy of our hearts! Which leads directly to my last point.

So, we ARE adopting because we want to know God more, experience His presence in our lives more, experience a fuller presence of His joy, and glorify His Name throughout the nations. In seeking Him and seeking to know Him, He has made it abundantly clear that we have to follow Him to “look after orphans” by taking someone, a little girl, outside of our family and making her a part of our family and loving her as if she is our own. THIS IS HOW HE LOVES US! We are “eagerly awaiting our adoptions as sons,” (Romans 8:23) because He took us from outside His chosen people, Israel, and adopted us Gentiles into His family. He is our Father. There is no clearer picture of the Gospel in action than can be found in adopting a child, who does not deserve nor is entitled to a better life (JUST AS WE ARE NOT!), but someone they have never met loves God so much that they gave up whatever it took to bring them home! This shows the most important point. WE ARE NOT THE RESCUERS HERE! We are ones who HAVE BEEN RESCUED! When we take this approach, it changes everything! We go because He came. We love because “He first loved us” (1 John 4:19).

Matthew 13:44, Jesus says, “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then IN HIS JOY went and sold all he had and bought that field.” No matter what the costs, we have found something worth losing everything for! WE WANT TO KNOW HIM, “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead,” (Phil 3:10 – 11).

Therefore, IN OUR JOY, we must follow Him to finding our next child, our first daughter!


Andrew