DAY 31: The Adoption Option

Today I’d like to share this wonderful testimony written by one of our former Pastors, Charles Specht, on the subject of adoption…

“My wife Kathy and I have five of the most wonderful children in the world. Our oldest three children (Camden, Brady, and Amelia) are ours biologically and our youngest two children (Charlotte and Luke) were adopted from China.
 
Adoption has been a wonderful experience for our family and we know that Charlotte and Luke will be blessed because of it throughout the remainder of their lives as well.
 
As Christians, Kathy and I both had our eyes opened to the beauty of spiritual adoption, simply because we’ve gone through the process of earthly adoption.  As a Christian, I can understand the basics of adoption as taught in Scripture, but for me, spiritual adoption truly became alive due to our earthly adoption of Charlotte and Luke.
 
The Bible speaks about adoption so often because adoption is close to the heart of God.  After all, God only has one “biological” Son (Jesus Christ), yet He has millions of adopted children.
 
Here are eight things we (my wife gets all the credit for originally putting this list together, by the way) have learned regarding our spiritual adoption into God’s family, purely because we adopted two children into our earthly family.
 

1. The person being adopted is helpless to do anything to change the condition/state they are in.
2. The person being adopted is not more deserving than anyone else in their circumstances.
3. The person being adopted will never fully comprehend the life that they have been saved from.
4. The person who is adopted is chosen by their parents.
5. The adopted child has an intimate relationship with parents, something they did not have prior to adoption.
6. The person adopting needs to be qualified and able to redeem, but must also be willing.
7. Adoption is not an easy task and it is very costly to the one who undertakes it.
8. The very act of adoption itself yields great joy to the one doing the adopting.”

 
How wonderful is that!  Adoption is truly precious to the heart of God, and it should be to us as well.

“He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless in His presence. In love He predestined us for adoption as His sons through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace…” (Ephesian 1:4-6)

“Behold what manner of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God. And that is what we are!” (1 John 3:1)

Suggested things to pray for:

• Pray for many wonderful parents to be open to the possibility of adoption and foster care.  
• Pray for many women with unplanned pregnancies to choose adoption as an alternative to abortion.