Tag Archives: Adoption

Adopted

Eastertide

May 21, 2021

Scripture Reading: Romans 8:12-17
So then, brothers and sisters, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh— for if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our Spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ—if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.

I enjoy the Finding Your Roots program on PBS. That should come as no surprise to anyone who knows me and my fascination with genealogy. Tracing the ancestry of slaves in the USA gets dicey before the Civil War because they were most often treated as animals in formal documents with no names listed. Their age, sex, and financial worth are usually all that is recorded. Occasionally, searchers are surprised to find where a slave owner had legally freed a slave. Even rarer, following the Civil War, some slave owners deeded land to former slaves to start them on their way to self-sufficiency like they would their child. I thought of that when I read this sentence in the above scripture: For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption.

There is something incredibly special about adoption. Perhaps the circumstances of needing to be adopted are painful, but having parents seal their acceptance and love for one by their choice through adoption is life-changing. As Paul describes it here, God’s gift of the Holy Spirit is that seal of acceptance. Some come to accept the love of God from a loving family with God as its center. Others stumble into discovering God in a drug treatment center or prison or a sudden realization that living the good life is not living much at all. God accepts us as we are, adopts us, and blesses us with the presence of that Spirit. We may not know what the next moment may bring, but we will always know God will be with us no matter what.

Prayer: Thank you, Lord, for accepting us just as we are and providing the guidance we need to become all that we can be. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

Adoption

Living in the Spirit
May 28, 2015

Scripture Reading: Romans 8:12-17

So then, brothers and sisters, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh— for if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. –Romans 8:12-15

I worked as an adoption specialist for a couple of years at the beginning of my career as a social worker. One of my tasks was to do the adoption study that determined whether an individual or couple would meet the standards required to care for a child. These adoption allplicants also specified what type of child or children they wanted. Having also worked with many teen parents, I wished often that someone had touched their lives at some point to help them understand that postponing parenthood might result in better outcomes for the parent and the child. It was an odd place to find myself caught between those wanting children and those having them whether they wanted them or not. It was also the time in our culture when most teen parents were beginning to choose to keep their babies.

It struck me when I read our scripture today that God accepts any who come to God just as they are—not only an infant whose mother had no history of drug abuse, did well in school, and knew who the father was. As an adoption worker, I thought it was important that potential adoptive parents recognize what they could handle and what they could not, because as an adoption worker, I experienced the pain of receiving back children returned from adoptions that did not work.

God though takes us all, and works to make each of us whole. What a blessing, what a gift of love is the adoption of God.

Prayer: Lord, we thank you for receiving us as your precious children and for your continuing love that makes us whole. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Adoption

Living in the Spirit
July 17, 2014

 Scripture Reading: Romans 8:12-25 

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ—if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him. —Romans 8:14-17

Slavery as it is described in the Bible may have been the absolute ownership of another human being usually a foreigner perhaps taken in war, but, particularly among the Jews, it was more like what we called indentured servants in the early days of the founding of America. When someone could not pay a debt they were indentured to work for their creditor until the debt was paid. Many people came to the US via an indenture of work in return for their ship passage. Others, like one of my ancestors was indentured to learn a trade. He worked for room and board for seven years to learn how to operate a forge. He may have worked alongside the children of the forge owner who also were learning the trade and not getting paid but who would at some point inherit the forge, a subtle but very important difference.

Paul likens our relationship to God as being like a child accepted into a family as a family member with all the benefits that go with that status unlike slaves who worked until their debt was paid and then were released or worked until they were no longer able to work. They most likely then become the beggar in the street. Our homeless in America today are very much like these outcastes of centuries ago, only in most places here it is against the law for them to beg.

The interesting thing about such divisions by status is that Jesus opened the door to recognize all people as the true children of God that they were. Paul, following his lead and his command, extended the invitations throughout the known world. We should not miss what a radical concept this must have been for a society that was so comfortable with haves and have-nots that they accepted them as the norm. Is it still a radical concept in our world today?

Prayer: Lord, give us the spirit to take up the mantel of Jesus and Paul as we too open the door for all to be welcomed as your children. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights reserved.