Giving children up for adoption can be a
loving alternative for parents who may, for various reasons, be unable
to care for their own children. It can also be an answer to prayer for
many couples who have not been able to have children of their own.
Adoption is, for some, a calling to multiply their impact as parents by
expanding their family with children who are not their own,
biologically. Adoption is spoken of favorably throughout Scripture.
The book of Exodus tells the story of a Hebrew woman named Jochebed who
bore a son during a time when Pharaoh had ordered all Hebrew male
infants to be put to death (Exodus 1:15-22).
Jochebed took a basket, waterproofed it, and sent the baby down the
river in the basket. One of Pharaoh’s daughters spotted the basket and
retrieved the child. She eventually adopted him into the royal family
and gave him the name Moses. He went on to become a faithful and blessed
servant of God (Exodus 2:1-10).
In the book of Esther, a beautiful girl named Esther, who was adopted by
her cousin after her parents' death, became a queen, and God used her
to bring deliverance to the Jewish people. In the New Testament, Jesus
Christ was conceived through the Holy Spirit instead of through the seed
of a man (Matthew 1:18). He was “adopted” and raised by His mother's husband, Joseph, who took Jesus as his own child.
Once we give our hearts to Christ, believing and trusting in Him alone
for salvation, God says we become part of His family—not through the
natural process of human conception, but through adoption. “For you did
not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you
received the Spirit of sonship [adoption]. And by him we cry, ‘Abba,
Father’” (Romans 8:15).
Similarly, bringing a person into a family by means of adoption is done
by choice and out of love. “His unchanging plan has always been to
adopt us into His own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesus
Christ. And this gave Him great pleasure” (Ephesians 1:5).
As God adopts those who receive Christ as Savior into His spiritual
family, so should we all prayerfully consider adopting children into our
own physical families.
Clearly adoption—both in the physical sense and in the spiritual
sense—is shown in a favorable light in Scripture. Both those who adopt
and those who are adopted are receiving a tremendous blessing, a
privilege exemplified by our adoption into God’s family.
