The Miracle of Adoption

I love the process of adoption.  I have several friends who have either already adopted children or who are in the process of adopting and I am always amazed and awed at how beautiful it is to watch a child go from a future of uncertainty into a future of love and protection.  The process of adoption is truly a miracle.

Last night, I got a call that one of my dearest friends was headed to the hospital to pick up an 11 day old baby boy who needed a home.  She and her husband had been patiently waiting for several months for a call that there was a child that needed them and last night, God brought that yearning to fruition in a miraculous way.

They were not expecting an infant.  They were planning on an older child.  But God had a different plan.  At 4:30, they got a call from their adotion case worker and by 9:00 they were home with a precious 6 pound baby boy.

Isn’t God miraculous?

This morning, as I was reflecting on last night’s events I read this in Galations – “But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.  Because you are sons, God has sent foth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father'” Galations 4:4-6

Whenever I look at a child who has been adopted into a loving family, I am reminded once again of our adoption as heirs to the throne – we are the adopted children of God.

What would this tiny baby’s life have been like if Amy and Andrew had decided not to give him a home?  If no one had given him a home?  How desolate would life have been for this child to have no one to love him?  No one to open their arms and give him the full rights of a son? 

But, indeed, there was a home for him.  A home ordained from the beginning of time by the Creator Himself.  And with that home come all the rights of a full fledged son.  This child will always know love.  He will always know acceptance and grace, mercy and community.  And he will be raised to know who his true Father is by two parents are fully committed to teaching their children of God’s grace.

Isn’t that beautiful?  Do you understand the picture that paints for us – followers of the God above all creation?  We too have been adopted unto Him.  We are His children and with that come all the privileges that are bestowed upon a child from his Father.  We don’t deserve it.  We could have been left alone, desolate, without the knowledge of unconditional love and acceptance.

But we were not left alone.  Just like this child was not left parentless in a hospital.  Just like the Chinese boy that our friends adopted was not left in an orphanage.  Just like Andrew and Amy’s first son was not left in a foster home.  No, we were not left alone.  We were brought into the fold; called out for a purpose and given the title Child of God.

Yes, adoption is a beautiful thing.  I find myself moved every time I look at these adopted children and I see their faces light up as they look at their parents.  They’re young now, so they don’t understand the miracle that’s taken place in their lives.  But someday…someday they’ll know.

I sometimes forget the miracle that’s taken place in my own life.  It is a miracle to be a child of God.  It is a miracle to be grafted from darkness into the light of a family.  It is a miracle.

Rejoice with me today in the miracle of adoption, will you?