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While checking out at Target the other day the cashier was talking to Eli and then asked if he was my only child 🙂 When I told her I had 7 children a look of complete shock came over her face as she told me I didn’t look like I had seven kids. Assuming she was talking about my physical appearance vs still being sane, I explained that I had only birthed two. Well, that led to a bunch of other question, one of which was “do you treat them different?”. I explained to her that they are all my children. They joined our family through different means but they are MY children and my love for them is the same.
That same night at church while discussing adoption and the upcoming foster training we will be offering I had a similar discussion. ” Do you really love them the same?” She was using the example of her love for her children and that for her nephew and how they were different. I explained that while they are not my flesh and blood they ARE my children! I’m not just providing them food, shelter and care…they have my heart! They had my love before I ever met them! They didn’t have to earn it or prove that they were a good “fit” for our family! Whatever the future holds….good, bad, ugly…they are MY children and my love for them is equal and unconditional. As Christians we should view adoption differently than that of the “world”. It’s not just a means to grow our family to give us the desired family portrait we’ve always dreamed of having on the wall. It’s an opportunity to live out a visible gospel.
When we confess our sins and repent and accept Jesus Christ as Lord we are Children of God! We are adopted into the family of Christ and we recieve a full inheritance with no fear of it being “disrupted”. Our adoption is not dependent upon our good behaviors (praise God) because….“There is no one righteous, not even one” We did /do nothing to earn our adoption. It is offered to us freely, but it did not come without great cost and sacrifice. Our Lord sent his Son, who was perfect and blameless, to suffer and die so that we could become his children through adoption. God is the creatory and model for adoption and as believers we are to be imitators of Christ! We too, must be wiling to go beyond what is comfortable and easy and be willing to die to self and be the hands and feet of Christ to these children who long for the love of family…and ultimately the family of Christ. Does it make sense to the world for a family who is capable of concieving to choose to adopt? NO…but that’s what he called us to do! Does it make sense for a family of 3 to adopt a sibling group of 3…and then another sibling group of 3? No…but He called this family to do just that! Does it make sense for a young 19 year old woman to move to Uganda and run a ministry feedng hundreds of children each week and become a mother of 13? NO…but that’s exactly what Katie has been called to(and you must take time to read through her whole blog!)! BUT IT MAKES SENSE TO OUR LORD!
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. James 1:27
Don’t be afraid to practice pure and undefiled religion and do something that seems crazy to those around you. Scripture tells us that God’s ways are not our ways. Listen to His calling and His heart in the scriptures and pray for wisdom as to how He would use you!
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