“Without Christmas there would be no Easter.”
I read a sign with the above catchy little phrase on it as I was on my way to church. True, I thought. No birth of Jesus Christ, no savior to die on a cross, defeat death, and allow a way for the enemies of God to “have the right” (John 1:12) to become His children through adoption.
“In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— 6to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.” Ephesians 1:5,6
(Contrary to popular sentiment, we are not children of God until we have believed and received in Jesus Christ. Yes, we are all created in His image, but after the fall, we became His enemies. See here and here .)
We are adopted. Adoption is God’s idea.
“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” Jesus (John 14:18)
You know what else is His idea? Taking care of the orphans.
“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress…” James 1:27
I don’t know how many widows there are out there, but I do know that there are a little more than a half-million children in foster care in the United States – 129,000 are waiting to be adopted.
Do you know how many places of worship are in the U.S.?
400,000.
Devon Williams of CitizenLink sums it up best:
“Can’t we find one family out of every three churches to adopt one child?”
Please consider rescuing a child for God. He did it for us. (Oh, and state adoption is actually free most of the time…some of the time the government actually pays you!)
(Rescuing a child works for me!)
