On a road trip last year, while I slept, Andy listened to a sermon by Pastor Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church in Seattle (www.marshillchurch.org). In the sermon, Driscoll talked about how the early Christians would go to the trash piles and fish out the live babies that people had thrown out, take them home and raise them as their own.
After I woke up, Andy said, “I think we should adopt.”
I said, “I’ve been thinking the same thing.”
After more than four years of trying to conceive unsuccessfully, I had gotten comfortable with our lifestyle. I enjoyed the fact that I could take a nap on Sunday afternoon if I wanted. We could be spontaneous. We could hang out with our friends anytime we wanted without interruption. We could travel easily. Basically we had developed a pattern of doing what we wanted when we wanted, and it was comfortable.
What struck me about the Christians mentioned in the sermon was that they assumed the responsibility of parenthood without hesitation. They didn’t give any thought to whether or not they had the space, the money, or the time. They just did it because…how could they not?
Admittedly, over the next year as we further discussed adoption, I wavered back and forth between wanting to hold on to my freedom and wanting a baby. Knowing the sacrifice it would take to be a parent made it easy to sit back, motionless. When you get pregnant, you don’t have that option. The baby is coming in nine months, ready or not! The sacrifice is the same; the urgency is different. When parenting is a choice, it’s easy for selfishness to creep in and slow the process.
After listening to the sermon, Andy began to see adoption as central to Christianity throughout history. As the article I mentioned in the previous post said, adoption is a “metaphor for God adopting each of us into his own family…and ‘it’s a sweeter way to understand His kingdom.’” Adoption is love. Adoption is sacrifice. Adoption is laying down your life for another. God gladly adopted us as his children to be co-heirs with Christ. (Ephesians 1:5, Romans 8:16-17) I pray that we will take on the sacrificial attitude of the early Christians and pursue adoption selflessly as we feel God has called us to.
Next Post: 6/28/2007
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1 comment:
Hi:
I am glad to read that you are seeing that adoption is NOT a Plan B. Because God does not give us what we want in our time, or does not follow what we expect to be the norm - it is suddenly plan B? God does things in His timing. And just because that child is not born of your genes, does not mean that you will love that child any less? Are you saying that Pedro is loved less, or less than a loved member of your family? Because he was not born into the family, do you love him any less? God allows situations to come into our lives to teach us lessons, or find out more about our selfs, and i think God is teaching you both areas. There is NO difference between a child born into your home or brought into your loving home. God gets the child where he wants. I read that you do not know any childhood friends that were adopted. Well, it is so natural for some, that people would not share it because it is not a big deal. And i hear you struggling with selflessness, but don't kid yourself. If i dropped a child off at your home today, saying it needed loving parents, you would take that child in a heartbeat. Your love is too deep, which is why this has been such a struggle. GOD's timing guys. He'll come through as you struggle through this issue. I have enjoyed reading your blogs.
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