Being Used by the Rescuer

I love the word rescue. It has such deep and profound meaning to me since we adopted our sons. In the women's Bible study that I attend we were all given verses or quotes to share aloud as a way to worship God. It was ironic to me and a bit surprising when I drew my slip of paper and all that was on it was "rescuer". Wasn't even a quote, but I went with it. I said it aloud to the group with great passion even though few people would have picked that up.

But man, it speaks volumes to me and about who God is.The first time I considered this word was when we were going through our first adoption process. I had dealt with infertility and the great desire to birth children. I was dealing with waiting for my children for many more years than I had expected. When the Lord showed us another way to build a family, I thought I was the one being rescued from hopelessness.

Nowadays adoption isn't just about adoption anymore. It is not just a solution for infertility and it is not just about continuing a family. These days adoption seems to get easily mixed up with caring for orphans. Many people have a deep compassion for fatherless children around the world and many get caught up in wanting to adopt for the lack of a better solution.

Some people can start off right --they are pulled in by the great need, the biblical calling, compassion, and a desire to help. And then something goes amiss. They start seeing themselves as the rescuer instead of the one being used by THE Rescuer.

Don't get me wrong, I believe many families are legitimately drawn to adoption by an experience in which they care for orphans. I wholeheartedly believe at some point adoptive families need to largely replace their compassion for orphans for their need and desire to have a son or daughter. Adoption is not just about having enough resources or space or shaking up your comfort to meet the needs of an orphan. It is about bringing a beloved son or daughter into their forever family.

Okay, here is where I may offend some people. I read a lot of adoption blogs. Many of them have verses and quotes all over them about how many orphans there are, scripture about caring for the orphan, the needs of orphans etc. It's all about orphans.

Not as many people share the profound and amazing scriptures about adoption. About how God takes us and adopts and and makes us co-heirs with Christ (Romans 8). Through God's adoption of us, we are made righteous. We carry His name, we represent Him, we are designated as His child. We have a place in His home. We are no longer orphans but children of the KING. This is profound and miraculous. And this is what we should be dwelling on as adoptive parents. All these things that the Heavenly Father gives to spiritual orphans should guide how we think about orphan adoption on earth.

We were once spiritual orphans needing the Heavenly Father. Our children were once orphans needing just a physical father. But our adopted children are no longer orphans. They were rescued from that plight, as we were spiritually rescued, by the sovereign God that somehow plucked them from the middle of anywhere and placed them in our arms. He sets the lonely in families (Psalm 68), and that is what causes us to desire a beloved son or daughter.

Adoption is about adoption. Adoption is not an extreme form of orphan care.