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What is unique to the Judeo-Christian teachings about God is that He is relational. He is relational within His own Person (three-in-one), and He initiates relationship with the people He has made.
Adoption seems at first glance to have little significance in Scripture. The word does not appear in the Old Testament, and only four-to-five times in the New. However, the concept touches on many of the major themes of the Bible: justification, regeneration, sanctification, salvation and resurrection.
The Old Testament law had no provision for adoption, but there are examples of it; interestingly, most of them involve foreign nations (e.g., Moses adopted by Pharaoh's daughter). Among the Israelites, God decreed that families would look after families. Hence, a widow could expect that another male member of the family would be a "kinsman-redeemer" (Ruth). Children who were orphaned would be taken in by the extended family (Esther).
In a spiritual sense, the relationship between God and Israel is compared to an adoption: God chose Abraham to be the father of a great nation. Later God declared of Abraham's descendants: "Out of all the peoples on the face of the earth, the LORD has chosen you to be His treasured possession" (Deuteronomy 14:2). Later yet, Isaiah declared: "You are our Father, though Abraham does not know us or Israel acknowledge us; You, O LORD, are our Father, our Redeemer from of old" (Isaiah 63:16). God also declared His intention to be a Father to the fatherless (Psalm 68:5).
The adoption language in the Old Testament is made more explicit in the New Testament. Jesus invited His followers into a Father-child relationship with God, teaching them to address God as "Abba", the Aramaic term for "Daddy" (Mark 14:36).
Adoption also lies at the heart of John 1:12-13: "To all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God--children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God." Chapter 3 (which states that a believer must be "born again") carries on this theme. Children are born naturally in the flesh, but to be part of the Kingdom of God, a new birth, by the Spirit, must occur.
In the ancient world, often a slave-owner would adopt a trusted slave and make him a son and heir. The apostle Paul used this practice to show that God has conferred a new status on those He has adopted as His own. Romans 8:15 contrasts the spirit of a slave, which is characterized by fear, to the spirit of a son, which cries out to "Abba, Father". Galatians 3-4 speaks of being sons of God through faith in Jesus (3:26): We become equal parts of the family of God, and former differences (Jew/Greek, male/female, slave/free) are irrelevant; we become heirs of the promises God made to Abraham. Ephesians 1:5 reveals God's motivation for adopting us: love. This passage speaks again of the "will"; this relationship exists not because it occurred naturally, but because God chose for it to exist. Furthermore, adoption is something to be anticipated as well as something to be experienced in the present. We have not yet experienced all of what it means to be adopted by God. There is much more to come, when we spend eternity in His presence.
It is interesting to observe how Christians have responded to the truth of our adoption into God's family. One of the central teachings of Jesus was that others would know that we are Christians by how we love one another. A community grew from the earliest days of Christianity which was characterized by loving, familial relationships between those who were not formerly related.
By the end of the New Testament period, believers were becoming recognized as those who were taking in abandoned babies. (In Greek and Roman cultures, unwanted babies were often left exposed by the roadside to die.) This continued in the history of the church, as convents and monasteries became havens for the orphaned in the Middle Ages.
In our culture, it is not newborn babies who are abandoned and unwanted, but more often the children who are kept by immature parents and who later become statistics in our child welfare system. It is frequently difficult to find families for children who are older and have experienced years of abuse and/or neglect.
International adoption is growing, as families hear of the needs of children in other countries. These children would grow up in overcrowded orphanages or not at all if it were not for the willingness of families to come and take them into their homes.
Also, the large numbers of couples who cannot have children of their own provide a comforting option to the young woman in a distressing pregnancy who might otherwise feel that abortion is the only answer. It gives hope to these women that something good can come out of their trauma: A family can be created for a couple who can't produce their own children.
Surely God is pleased in all of these situations, that His example of creating a family and loving those who need to be loved is being followed. To the extent that Christians model their choices and behaviours after what God would do in a given situation, they walk in His footsteps.
Wendy Kittlitz is a member of Mill Woods MB Church in Edmonton, Alta. She is a Christian adoption counsellor, and she and her husband are expecting their first child this month.
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