Today is Sunday and that means that I have another short devotional for you today. As usual, this is from the book Orphanology by Tony Merida.
I have been taking Sundays to focus on 8 ways that our adoption as sons into God’s family is like our role towards the orphans in the world.
In review:
- Adoption involves purposeful planning
- Adoption requires the right qualifications
- Adoption is costly
- Adoption saves children from terrible situations
You can read points 1-2 in my Week 1 post here, and points 3-4 in my Week 2 post here.
Today I’ll briefly talk about these two points:
5. Adoption involves a legal chance
When a child becomes adopted, they are legally declared our children by the ones with the authority to declare it so. Of course, in foster care, this is a little bit more fuzzy, as the children are technically never ours in the first place. However, even if they are not legally ours, we take on the full responsibility of caring for them in EVERY way.
As Christians, our blessing is even greater.
God declares us righteous before Himself based upon the work of Christ, who took the penalty that we deserved. By faith in Christ, God credits to us the merits of Jesus.
We are legally and bindingly his. What a glorious thing to rejoice in!
6. Adoption involves the spirit of sonship
Many adoptive parents get super annoyed by the comment “real children”. As in, “were you unable to have real children?” or “who are their real parents?” or “are they real siblings?”. Once an adoption has taken place, it’s as real as it can be! The children call them Dad and Mom. There is nothing more real than that! Even if they have a different skin tone or a different accent or different hair, it’s all real!
In the same way, we as Christians are really HIS! He is our real father, and we are His real children.
You have received a spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry “Abba! Father!” The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God —Romans 8:15-16
Questions?
If you have any questions at all about foster care or adoption from foster care as I go through this series, please don’t hesitate to ask. You can leave a comment or send an email. At the end of the series, I will have a Q&A day and will be answering any questions I receive throughout the month.
Previous posts:
Day 1: Introduction
Day 2: Meet the Hines
Day 3: Shop Feature: Karla Storey
Day 4: Why We Chose to Foster
Day 5: The Process
Day 6: The Cast of Characters
Day 7: The Paperwork
Day 8: The Goal is Reunification
Day 9: Reflections
Day 10: Shop Feature: Ransomed Cuffs
Day 11: The Placement
Day 12: The Daily Life
Day 13: The Extra’s
Day 14: Bonding
Day 15: The Goodbye
Day 16: Reflection
Day 17: Shop Feature: Together we Rise
Day 18: Finances
Day 19: Rules
Day 20: Foster or Foster to Adopt
Day 21: Public Agency or Private Agency
Day 22: Books/Resources/Blogs
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