Biblical Adoption

Brian Luwis's Biblical perspective on adoption, found on America World Adoption Agency's website, is awe-inspiring to me every time I read it. I highly recommend that you read the entire text. Here's a couple of parts that really stand out to me:

The Spirit of Adoption

Does God Place an Emphasis upon Genetic Relations?

I want to dispel a myth that is entrenched in many of our thoughts about God's chosen people. It is my belief that this will help you view adoption as a natural process designed by God. In the book of Genesis, God calls Abraham out from among his kinsmen to a new land. Abraham was to be the father of a nation from which his physical descendants (the "chosen seed") were to be the "keepers of the covenant." From this, we assume it was God's plan to redeem man through Abraham and his biological descendants. This is not the case. When God chose Abraham He also chose his entire household and not just Abraham's physical seed.

Genesis 17:12—“And he that is eight days old will be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of your seed.” (NKJV)

Through this verse we can better understand what God meant when He spoke of a "chosen seed." Abraham's household was truly a blended community, integrating relatives, servants and strangers from a variety of ethnic groups. When God chose Abraham and his descendents, it had nothing to do with genetics. Abraham was chosen because of his faith, as was his "seed." God was not trying to create a special ethnicity of people based upon genetics, blood type or DNA. Instead, God wanted to cultivate a people who would be universally known as His children by their spiritual heritage, not by their skin color or genetic makeup.

Galatians gives further insight into this truth. Galatians 3:7 says, “Know therefore, that they which are of faith are the children of Abraham,” (NKJV)

Galatians 3:29 says, “And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” (NKJV)

When we consider these verses in light of Ephesians 1:5 (NIV), "…He predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will," we begin to see adoption for what it really is…God's relationship builder and His chosen means of bringing His fallen creatures into a permanent relationship with Himself and a perfectly natural means for God to place a child in your family.

“Is Adoption God’s Plan B?”

What did the Scriptures have to say about the subject?

Have you ever considered the fact that Jesus was adopted? Yes, Jesus' earthly father Joseph adopted him. In fact, the Gospel of Matthew traces the bloodline of Jesus not through his biological mother, Mary, but through his adoptive father, Joseph. Even though one might easily pass over this fact as insignificant, this detail reveals something amazing about God's nature. God does not make mistakes, and He certainly doesn't need a back-up plan. Through this footnote in history we see that for Jesus, adoption was not Plan B.

God's plan of redemption for an imperfect world was set in motion through the very concept of adoption. Not only did He ordain his son Jesus to be adopted, but He made adoption the only way we could become a part of His eternal family. It was His good pleasure to adopt us. In fact, it is His ideal mechanism to establish relationships."

“Is a Child by Adoption my Own?”
Renée and I faced this question as newly adoptive parents. When Renée gave birth to Sophia we likewise questioned if God considered her to be more "ours" than Fei or Gwenn were "ours."

We read in 1 Corinthians 6:19—“Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?” (NKJV)

If we are not our own and God owns us, then He must own our children too, for it is by His grace that we move, live, and have our being. We have children by His grace, adopted or by birth. God entrusts them to us. He is their true Father in heaven. We are their earthly parents....

God’s Word goes further to show we are not our own by calling us His children. “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” John 1:12 (NIV)

God calls us "His children." If we are His children, then so are our sons and daughters. We can take comfort in knowing that the ownership of our children(by adoption or birth) belongs to the Creator of the Universe, our Eternal Father.