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Have You Been Adopted?
Many times throughout the Bible, God regards orphans with high importance. In Psalm 68:4-5, He identifies Himself as a father to the fatherless. Psalm 146:9 says that He cares for the orphans.
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In the book of James, we are told that pure religion - meaning a right relationship with God - is to care for the orphans. In Isaiah 1:17, God charges us to defend orphans. As believers, it is our duty.
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Furthermore, the next verse in Isaiah (1:18) invites us to reason with God. Though our sins are as red as scarlet, He can make them as white as snow. Though they are as red as crimson, He can make them as white as wool.
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In other words, we have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). We are guilty of breaking God's laws (all of them, actually - James 2:10-11). But God has already seen our need and taken care of it. Romans 10:9-10 tells us that if we confess that Jesus is Lord and believe in our hearts that God raised Him from the dead, we will be saved. This is why Christ died - to save us from our sins while we were yet sinners (Romans 5:8-11).
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Because of this, we become children of God (John 1:12) and are adopted into His family and planted in fertile ground (Ephesians 1:5).
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The earthly act of adoption actually speaks of heavenly truths. Spiritually, we are all lost, without a home. But when we accept Jesus into our hearts as our Lord and Savior, He adopts us spiritually into His family. If you want to be adopted this way, that is, to be saved from your sins and live forever with God in heaven, then know He is ready and willing to take you in.
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He stands at the door and knocks (Revelation 3:20).
Today can be your day of salvation (2 Corinthians 6:1-2)!
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Please take a moment to reflect on how blessed you are. You might not feel like you are at the moment, but He has blessed you with life, friends and family. We have a plaque on our kitchen wall that says that we believe in the Sun, even when it's not shining. It also says we believe in God, even when He is silent.
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Is God silent for you now? Has he been for a long time? Maybe forever? If so, we invite you to journey with us. Watch how God does amazing things in our life, and we pray for God to do amazing things in your life. Not because we deserve it, but because God is good. Very good.
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We've always thought of adoption as something good...something we should do at some point in our lives. But the morning never seems to come where you jump out of bed and exclaim, "Today is the day to start the adoption process!"
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Then on April 27th, 2017, a life-changing morning came, but not what we expected. Anne's phone rang at 6:45am, and it was her dad: "Anne, I don't know how to tell you this, but Mom died in her sleep last night."
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Those moments, ingrained in our memories, will probably never fade. Anne screamed, dropped the phone, and dropped to her knees in shocked anguish. We rushed out of the house, like we were caught in a blazing fire, grabbing the kids and the keys, and sped over to Anne's parents' house. Mom had passed away suddenly in the middle of the night - there was no warning and nothing we could do.
The shock took a long time to wear off - at times it still hits us afresh. That morning changed our lives forever. Reality was shaken but not all for the bad. In the months following, God had been really working on our hearts concerning adoption.
The "good idea" had now become a pressing notion we could not shake. So, we began praying and asking God if it is His will for us to adopt.
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The Book of James tells us that when we ask God, we should do so expecting an answer. It's sort of funny but the answer God was beginning to give us after a few weeks of praying about adoption was, "Why are you still asking me ... as if you don't know that I've already answered 'yes'?"
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God's "yes" turned into us talking with various people in our church family that are involved with adoption in one way or another. The more we talked about God's plan of adoption for our family, the more we knew we were absolutely being called to do so. Bible passages concerning adoption began jumping off the pages at us. We couldn't avoid it any longer. Life had become much more real with Anne's mom passing, and we knew we now had a mission from God to bring Eve home.
Without even realizing it, God had been bringing India into Anne's heart several years ago. Whenever she saw or heard something about India, she was intrigued. The people, the culture, the clothing, the food...everything about it is fascinating. With this in mind, we began looking into adoption options. Domestic adoption through the foster care system was not something we felt God was leading us into. This left international adoption as our first choice. So...which country to choose? Because of Anne's above mentioned India fascination, of course that was on Anne's mind. Then we did some research and found a statistic that India has 20 million orphans, more than any other country. Children are desperately in need of safe, loving homes to escape the threat of child trafficking.
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India was also on a short list of viable options for us. There are many stipulations that made our list so short...some countries require that at least one parent be a citizen of that country; some require extensive travel; some do not allow you to choose if you'd like a boy or girl (our boys' room is pretty full already!). As we considered all of this, we continued to pray and ask God's leading. We believe He has led us to pursue adoption of a little, wonderful girl from India, and we're super excited!
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