Wednesday, February 16, 2011

The Insanity of Adoption

In my bio it says, "I'm married with 2 kids and no free time — so, of course, I've got a blog."

Lately I've had even less free time. While work has slowed down (maybe too much), home life has picked up. Besides the usual chores and such, my eldest is in first grade and is struggling learning to read, so she's been the focus of every evening for a while. Our lives are chocked full, with few moments to ourselves for our own hobbies or interests.

So we're adopting a couple more kids.

Are we out of our ever-loving minds? Yeah.

Is it going to be hard? Certainly. Isn't everything worthwhile?

And this is certainly worthwhile. In fact, it's probably more worthwhile than you think. The idea of adoption is the core of Christian theology, but it's also the Christian life encapsulated.

Adoption is...

The gospel in miniature — choosing to love someone you have no obligation to.

Loving Jesus by loving "the least of these."

"Pure and faultless" religion.

Spiritual warfare — opposing the prince of this world who desires to see people left in a hopeless state.

Embodying the Kingdom by giving a home to the fatherless and food to the hungry.

Evangelism — What better way to share the gospel with someone than to bring them into your house and life?

And it's taking care of kids who have no one else.

It's also opposing social Darwinism, living out what we believe. As Alexander Sanger put it,
"Adoption is counter-intuitive from an evolutionary vantage point .... Adoption requires a person to devote time and resources to raising a child that is not genetically related."(1)
Exactly. It makes no sense from a materialistic point of view (in either sense of the word), but it makes all kinds of sense from an eternal perspective.


(1) Quoted in Adopted for Life by Russell Moore.

1 comment:

Tausign said...

Great theology and great faith. My prayers are with you and your family.