Superman. Snow White. Harry Potter. Luke Skywalker. Princess Leia. Peter Pan.

Why do so many inspiring stories have orphans as main characters?

As we are entering the holiday season…and as some have already entered in…there will be several movies that play on a loop. Who likes The Christmas Story? What about It’s a Wonderful Life? Now how about a more modern day classic…Elf? In this movie a child who is put in an orphanage sneaks into Santa’s bag and is raised by elves. In the beginning of the movie, Buddy finds out that he’s not a cotton-headed ninny muggings and that he’s not an elf. Of course he’s not an elf—he’s 6’3.” Unfortunately, just like in the case of the elves adopting a human, some people think adoption is just for fairy tales. For someone else. But that’s not the case.

These stories of orphans and adoption, even in our beloved movies, tap into the innate feeling that this world is not our home. As C. S. Lewis wrote, “If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.”

This is why adoption is such a comforting doctrine. To be adopted is to realize you were made for another world—and for another person. Your home is in heaven—and you were made for God.[1]

Now, the adoption I am talking about this morning is theological in nature. What we see from physical human adoptions represents a spiritual reality for those who are in Christ. The Westminster Shorter Catechism 34 asks “What is adoption?” It answers: “Adoption is an act of God’s free grace, whereby, we are received into the number and have a right to all the privileges of the sons of God.”

Just like earthly adoption, it’s the act of God bringing into his family those who weren’t naturally His and legally making them to be just like his Son. It’s where we are brought into a new family, and totally divested of our belonging to our former family. God totally changes who we are and what we get.[2] Today, as you have seen, we’re focusing on orphans and adoption.

You know, the Bible has a lot to say about what it should look like, practically, to live out the faith we say we have. Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” And it’s not silent on what many of those good works are. We are to look after orphans and widows in their distress.[3] We are to visit those who are in prison.[4] We are to remember and help the poor.[5] We so often neglect to live out the very good works that the Bible demonstrates we are to work.

Now, the Bible does not say we are saved by good works, but we, the workmanship of God, are created by God to do good works. And as we do, we are imaging Him and what He has done for us. It is so in adoption. The Bible draws a powerful, and very real, analogy with adoption and what God has done for us in salvation. And the earthly picture of adoption, a family taking in and making their own a child who was once not their own, demonstrates to an unbelieving world what the God of love has offered for them.

So, let’s look at some matters of importance in regards to theological adoption and draw some parallels with earthly adoption, and I pray we see together through it how much God really loves us.

Adoption has mattered for eternity and will matter for eternity. Before the foundation of the world, God predestined us to be adopted.

Ephesians 1:5 – He predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will.

Here’s what this means, and I will frame it within mine and Sara’s personal story of adoption.

(Tell the story of Sara and I desiring and seeking to adopt for our first child. We had purposed before we ever had children to adopt, even though God had different plans in mind for us.)

Adoption was plan A for God. It wasn’t a plan B after Adam and Eve sinned and became, in a sense, illegitimate children. Creation, Fall, Redemption, Adoption was plan A for God. Adoption doesn’t just matter in eternity past, but it matters for our past.

Adoption matters for our past.

Romans 8:15 – For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”

Children who are adopted have a past that is difficult. They are orphaned or abandoned. They may feel betrayed or unloved. I’ve read more than one story lately of couples who walked into an international orphanage for their first of two meetings to adopt their children, and the orphanage was in dead silence although it was filled with babies. Babies eventually stop crying out when they realize nobody is coming to help. For one of these families, after days of playing with two children who would soon become theirs, and having to leave for the final time on that first trip, as they walked out the door, one of the boys fell to his crib and let out a loud guttural yell. Hear what this man said about it.

“It seemed he knew, maybe for the first time, that he would be heard. On some primal level he knew he had a father and a mother now. I will never forget how the hairs on my arms stood up as I heard that yell. I was struck, maybe for the first time, by the force of the Abba cry passages in the New Testament…ones I had memorized in Vacation Bible School, and I was surprised by how little I had gotten any of it until now.”[6]

This is our past. Broken. Hurting. Helpless. A slave to sin. In bondage to the things of the world. And God enters in and loves us with an unconditional and transforming love. Where there was once helplessness, God brings hopefulness.

Physical human adoption isn’t easy. And we shouldn’t necessarily expect it to be. Adoption means bringing another human into your family who may have lived weeks, months or even years in a world without you. A world without love, security, nourishment, or hope. They may have past trauma, genetic issues you know nothing about, different worldviews than your own that are engrained in them and from their prior environment. But even though dealing with their past is hard and not to be treaded lightly, it is no reason to keep us from adopting. After all, God saw our dirty past sins, failures, mistakes before we even committed them and still chose to send his Son to die in our place.

Where we have been is no determiner of who we can be if we allow Christ to transform us from the inside out. To justify us. To adopt us. To make us his child.

Adoption matters in our present.

1 John 3:2-3 – 2 Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 3 And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

We are God’s children now.

Realizing the present implications of our adoption brings us hope. There is nothing worse than feeling helpless and hopeless—than feeling that nobody cares and there’s no relief for your situation. That’s what happened in those orphanages where none of the babies were crying. There was no hope. There was nobody to help. So, why even cry out? You might be in a similar situation in life right now with all that is surrounding you and happening to you.

If you fall into a pit that is too deep to climb out of, what do you do? You cry out for help! But what if nobody is around? Crying out is useless when there’s no help and no hope. But, it’s not so with God.

The reason that baby could plop on his crib and let out a deep yell was because he knew he was heard. He knew there was help. For once, he had hope, because he was being adopted. He had someone who cared.

It’s the same for us. We live in what’s called the already and not yet. Jesus has brought redemption, but it has not fully been consummated. The Revelation 21 making of all things new, where He will wipe every tear from our eyes and death, and mourning, and pain will be no more, hasn’t taken place. But, it is coming. It is coming because He is coming. Just like those parents had to leave on that first visit. But, they were coming back. And they were going to take that baby to where they were with love and care.

It’s the same with us. There is sin, and death, and mourning, and crying, and pain…but not without hope. We can cry out because we have one who hears us and who cares and who is coming back for us. So, whatever you’re going through or have been through, there is hope. You have a Father who cares and will provide exactly what you need. Our adoption assures us of that amidst where we are right now.

Adoption matters for our future.

I love hearing the Rickman’s story and how they stepped out in faith to take in three kids. Now three kids have a better future because they belong to a family, because they are being brought up in a Christian household, and they have access to education they might not have had otherwise…because of all this, their futures are forever impacted. And not just their futures, but their children’s futures, and their children’s children’s futures and on and on and on. It’s a ripple affect. It’s an inheritance of love and acceptance they now have taken on and will pass down to their families.

I was listening to my favorite singer/songwriter yesterday, Andrew Peterson, and his song “Planting Trees” came on. In it he talks about some maples he planted, and how he prays the roots grow deep. He then says, “And many years from now; Long after we are gone; These trees will spread their branches out; And bless the dawn.” Now, hear the second verse. I thanked God when I heard it last night because I knew it was for us today. That’s how God works.

“He took a plane to Africa. He gathered up into his arms an orphan son. So many years from now, long after we are gone, this tree will spread its branches out and bless the dawn.”

What we plant today will outlive us. That’s all the sacrifices big and small we make for others. That’s raising our children to know and love the God that knows and loves them. That’s spending days doing paper work and thousands of dollars and risking heart ache to give love and life to another person. That’s showing the sacrifice and costly love that was given to us through Jesus. There was nothing he wouldn’t pay for us—his very life. There is no distance too far from which he would come for us—heaven itself.

The future of an adopted child isn’t the only future that matters for adoption.

1 John 3:2 – Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is…

In the Bible, intrinsic within the doctrine of adoption is the notion of inheritance. An inheritance is a legal right to something familial. The Bible says of those who believe that we are God’s children and therefore his heirs. Galatians reveals this well.

Galatians 3:29 – And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.

Galatians 4:7 – So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.

There is hardship now, but soon the inheritance is ours. There’s hope in that.

Romans 8:17 – and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

This inheritance is only for those who are adopted. It says, if you are children then you are heirs. You must be adopted by God to receive the inheritance of God. And how are you to be adopted?

John 1:12-13 – 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

So, receive Him. Believe in his name. “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”[7] The name of Jesus is the name above all names.[8] It means “The Lord saves.” The angel said to Joseph, who was to adopt a child that was not his own, “you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”[9] At this name, every knee will bow and every tongue confess that He, Jesus Christ, is Lord.[10] The Bible says that “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”[11]

If you believe…not just some hypothetical wishful thinking, but actual belief, that the Creator of the cosmos took on flesh, lived the perfect life that you and I can never live, suffered, bled and died for your every sin, and victoriously, in real space and time, real reality, rose from the dead, He gives the right for you to become a child of God. To be adopted. To not have wrath placed upon you, which is our natural birthright, but instead, grace and love.

Hear who we are apart from Christ, before our adoption, and you will see our incredible need to be adopted as God’s children and the glory of our inheritance.

Ephesians 2:1-7 – 1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

Our adoption matters for eternity because without belief in Jesus, God’s wrath still rests on us, and with belief in Jesus, the inheritance of God awaits us.

While I am inspired by stories like the Rickmans and Pogues and others who have adopted in our church and community, I know that as great as it is to welcome a child into your family, it’s even greater for them to be welcomed into God’s family. That is the ultimate goal. When I think of adoption, I think of a mission field of bringing children not only into a physical family of love and acceptance, but hopefully into God’s eternal family of love and acceptance.

Take a look at this picture on the screen. This is Rafa and Josenia. Both adopted from Costa Rica into different families and both getting baptized on the same day. They each received Christ, probably in large part because of their family’s Christ-like example and consistency in bringing them to church where they have heard the gospel. This is beautiful because it demonstrates the end goal of adoption…both theirs and ours. Loving a child outside of your DNA with the same love that God has graciously bestowed upon you, in order that they will ultimately know how much they are loved and accepted by God. The inheritance of God now awaits these two once orphaned kids. All because two families took a chance and were willing to sacrifice. An act of selfless love and sacrifice that will keep causing a ripple effect for these kids and the generations to come that they impact, long after we are gone. Wouldn’t you want to be part of this?

You can by first of all accepting the inheritance Jesus died to give you–eternal life–if you haven’t already. It’s free and you can come just as you are to receive it. But what’s great about coming into the family of God is that God doesn’t leave us just as we are. Just like families who adopt don’t leave their kids in the orphanage, God cleans us up, feeds us his Word, and brings us into a family of other believers (the church) so that in time we grow to be more like him. If we are truly following Him, we start to take on his traits just as if we shared his DNA. You can take the first step in doing that by coming today and becoming part of the family of God.

And for those who have already been adopted into the family of God, maybe He is prompting some of you to pray about adopting a child into your family. It’s not an easy call, as Sara and I have experienced waiting almost 10 years since we first started pursuing adoption, but we know God will be faithful to see us through, and it will be worth it. The same for you.

To conclude, as Faithful Adoption Consultants, an organization we follow, posted on their Facebook this week about adoption… “It is hard. It is messy. It takes time. It requires patience. It can strengthen you. It will bend you. It will bring you to your knees. It will remind you of Who is in control. It will break your heart for things you never knew existed. It will bless your life. It will take sacrificial love. It will do all those things…and it is still worth it.”

[1] https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/first-comes-love-then-comes-adoption/

[2] https://www.buckner.org/files/uploads/FCA-SermonOutline-GodsGiftofAdoption.pdf

[3] James 1:27

[4] Matthew 25:36

[5] Galatians 2:10

[6] Russell D. Moore, Why Every Christian is Called to Support Adoption; Christianity Today (July 2, 2010). https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2010/july/10.18.html

[7] Acts 4:12

[8] Philippians 2:9

[9] Matthew 1:21

[10] Philippians 2:10-11

[11] Romans 10:9