I was reading Adopted for Life: The Priority of Adoption for Christian Families and Churches again this afternoon. I started the book on vacation and got about halfway. I am eager to finish it but there is so much in it that rattles my affections that I tend to only get through half a chapter and I have to pray and think about what this means for me and my family. Today’s reading did not disappoint and I felt like I had to absolutely share this with whoever will listen!
“Think of how revolutionary it is for Christians to adopt a young boy with a cleft palate from a region of India where most people see him as ‘defective.’ Think of how counterintuitive it is for Christians to adopt a Chinese girl-when many there see her as a disappointment. Think of how odd it must seem to American secularists to see Christians adopting a baby whose body trembles with an addiction to the cocaine her mother sent through her bloodstream before birth. Think of the kind of credibility such action lends to the proclamation of the gospel. An adoption culture in our churches advances the cause of life, even beyond the individual lives of the children adopted. Imagine if Christian churches were known as the places where unwanted babies become beloved children. If this were the case across the board around the world, sure, there would still be abortions, there would still be abusive homes. But wouldn’t we see more women willing to give their children life if they’d seen with their own eyes what an adoption culture looks like? And wouldn’t these mothers and fathers, who may themselves feel unwanted, be a bit more ready to hear our talk about a kingdom where all are welcomed?”
“Not every believer will stand praying outside an abortion clinic. Not every believer will take a pregnant teenager into his or her quest bedroom. Not every believer is called to adopt. But every believer is called to recognize Jesus in the face of his little brothers and sisters when he decides to show up in their lives, even if it interrupts everything else.”
“Think of the plight of the orphan somewhere right now out there in the world. It’s not just that she’s lonely. It’s that she has no inheritance, no future. With every passing year, she’s less ‘cute,’ less adoptable. In just a few years, on her eighteenth birthday, she’ll be expelled from the orphanage or from ‘the system.’ What will happen to her then? Maybe she’ll join the military or find some job training. Maybe she’ll stare at a tile on the ceiling above her as her body is violated by a man who’s willing to pay her enough to eat for a day, alone in a back alley or in front of a camera crew of strangers. Maybe she’ll place a revolver in her mouth or tie a rope around her neck, knowing no one will have to deal with her except, once again, the bureaucratic ‘authorities’ who can clean up the mess she leaves behind. Can you feel the force of such desperation? Jesus can. She’s his little sister. What if a mighty battalion of Christian parents would open their hearts and their homes to unwanted infants-infants some so-called ‘clinics’ would like to see carried out with the medical waste? It might mean that next Christmas there’ll be one more stocking at the chimney at your house-a new son or daughter who escaped the abortionist’s knife or the orphanage’s grip to find at your knee the grace of a carpenter’s Son.”
