Adoption is Thicker Than Blood

For many, adoption is a concept that is difficult to fully understand.  Most people have a surface level view that is typified in most Hollywood renditions -- a child is raised by his adoptive parents but one day he meets his "real" parents, i.e. his bioloical or birth parents.  It seems to be human nature to elevate the importance of biological parents over adoptive ones.  Some are more tactful than others, but deep down everyone harbors this prejudice.  I used feel this way up until I became an father by adoption.

The Bible teaches that followers of Christ are adopted into God's family (Romans 8:15, Ephesians 1:5).  Christians are aware that adoption is a beautiful picture of how God relates with us, but just like with earthly adoption most Christians have a shallow view of what it entails.  It is an abstract concept that doesn't make God's mystery of redemption any clearer.  My intent is to help you understand the power of adoption in both natural and supernatural aspects.  As with all things, however, we can only appreciate the natural in light of God's supernatural revelation.

As I've already said, I used to tacitly believe that being a parent by blood carried greater weight than being one by adoption. Adopting was always on my heart to do, but I thought that it would be later in life after we have "our own" children.  Biblically speaking, however, this elevation of blood genealogy is a sin.  By blood my father is Adam from whom I've inherited sin and rebellion against God (1 Corinthians 15:21-22).  That rebellion defines every fabric of my being, much like how inherited DNA defines the makeup of biological children.  Spiritually I was born a child of Adam, separated from God and unable to change my sinful rebellion.

But God...in His love and mercy...chose to adopt me into his family.  He chose me before I was born. He did not wait until after I was born to see if I was nice enough, smart enough, and without any defects.  He did not wait to choose me until I chose Him first.  He chose me to be in His family before He even created the world (Ephesians 1:4-5).  By His own choice He gave me His Holy Spirit, turned my heart, and received me into His arms when I came to Him in faith.  God brought me into His family through a covenant blood of Jesus Christ -- a covenant that He will forever honor.  By doing so, He rescued me from my biological inheritance of death and granted me His supernatural inheritance of heaven (Acts 26:18).  I now call God my Father instead of Adam (Galatians 4:6).  God is my father by His choice, and He exercised His choice by adopting me.  Choice is thicker than blood.

Once I understood this I had to repent for my sinful devaluation of myself as a father by adoption.  Just as God chose me before I was born, so I chose my son before he was born.  I did not wait until he was older to see what kind of boy he would be...I chose to love and father him irregardless of anything he would do, postivie or negative.  He bears my name and will receive my inheritance.  I chose to bring him into my family through a covenant with him -- a covenant ratified by a judge that I will never break.  My choice to be his father is thicker and stronger than any blood lineage.  The example of my adoption by God the Father erases any doubt or insecurity of my role as an earthly father by adoption, irregardless of what a godless society may believe.  Because adoption explicitly entails choice, adoption is thicker than blood.