On Adoption

From Max Lucado's Outlive Your Life, 2010: Thomas Nelson Publishers: p. 6

And we have enough bedrooms to house the orphans. Here's the math. There are 145 million orphans worldwide. Nearly 236 million people in the United States call themselves Christians. From a purely statistical standpoint, American Christians by themselves have the wherewithal to house every orphan in the world.

Of course, many people are not in a position to do so. They are elderly, infirm, unemployed, or simply feel no call to adopt. Yet what if a small percentage of them did? Hmmmm, let's say 6 percent. If so, we could provide loving homes for more than 14.1 million children in sub-Saharan Africa who have been orphaned by the AIDS epidemic. Among the noble causes of the church, how does this one sound? "American Christians Stand Up for AIDS Orphans." Wouldn't that headline be a welcome one?

I don't mean to oversimplify these terribly complicated questions. We can't just snap our fingers and expect the grain to flow across borders or governments to permit foreign adoptions. Policies stalemate the best of efforts. International relations are strained. Corrupt officials snag the systems. I get that.

But, this much is clear: the storehouse is stocked. The problem is not in the supply; the problem is in the distribution. God has given this generation, our generation, everything we need to alter the course of human suffering.

Cynda Here:

For most of you, if not all of you, reading this blog, you fall into a category known as Gentiles. We aren't born of God's biological family known as the Israelites or Jews. Yet, God saw fit to adopt us idol worshiping gentiles, love us as his own children, and give us part of their inheritance. He didn't have to. He had his own children already. Brought out of Egypt by His hand, led to the promised land by His leaders. He has an entire nation. Yet, he chose to adopt us because of his immense love for all of us regardless of nation or skin color.

Without God's love, we didn't stand a chance. We were lost, hungry, and lonely. But, he took us in, made us his own, and gave us an inheritance.

There is no greater way to share the love God has so freely given us than to follow his example and adopt a child that is not our own, that does not share our genes or biology, and maybe not even our skin color.

In Texas alone, there are 3500 children ready and waiting to be adopted. I don't know what percentage of households in Texas would fall into the same 6% as described by Lucado above, but I am guessing that there are more than 3500 households in Texas who could adopt these children.

These children and others world-wide don't stand a chance without us. They will die hungry, lost, and alone, if someone isn't willing to share God's love and grace with them.