The Beauty of Adoption: I Prayed for You

Adoption is a beautiful thing. Giving a child a family means giving them hope, love, and belonging. Thats’s what God wants for all of us. Adoption was His idea, and God’s ideas are all good.

He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will. — Ephesians 1:5

Did you know that under Roman law, the adopted child had a right to the name and the property of the person by whom he had been adopted? The person who adopted the child instantly had all the rights and privileges of a father. Through adoption, a beautiful relationship of sonship and fatherhood is instantly born.

I’ve worked in Southern Africa with orphans for fifteen years now. My views on adoption have gone through many changes over those fifteen years as I’ve seen how much culture makes up so much of one’s identity, but the one belief that has remained constant is this: When adoption happens because of what’s best for the child and not to fill any kind of need within others, then it’s a win win for everyone. When the motivation of bringing a child into your family is driven by agape love, choosing the highest good, then I think we are tapping into the heart of God for the orphan.

In our line of work, we’ve seen firsthand how orphans create orphans. God wants to break that cycle. I always thought we would adopt a child into our home. It hasn’t happened yet, but I’ve realized that just because adoption hasn’t transpired doesn’t mean we can’t be a part of breaking the orphan cycle. We do that by opening our home and our hearts up to those who need someone to talk to and by letting them experience family. We do that by praying that God would break the orphan cycle, and we constantly keep our hearts open to hear what He might want us to do about that.

Have you read Tommy Nelson’s newest book, I Prayed For You? It’s a beautiful tale of one Mama Bear praying for her Baby Bear. It’s a great book to reinforce to your littles the love that comes with belonging to a family. It’s also a great way to challenge them to pray for those babies who need to experience that kind of love that comes from family.

As November starts National Adoption Awareness Month, let us pray for babies yet to be born, for mommies and daddies praying about taking the steps toward adoption, and for orphans around the world who need families. Let’s bravely open up our hearts to ask God how He wants to use us to break the orphan cycle and create family for those who need it. When we’re driven by the love of Jesus, then we can never run out.

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Your Turn

Come join the conversation on our blog! We would love to hear from you about the beauty and redemptive nature of adoption.