This was originally a Facebook post I shared May 29, 2016. While looking for another article I thought I had shared, I re-read this one and thought I should share it here, too. There were several who thanked me for sharing this initially and I pray God will use it for whatever He desires.
When God called me to "coordinate the adoption of deaf orphans in the world" He knew what I thought about adoption. He knew the stories I knew of the deep sadness and severed hearts in families of those far and those so close to me. Of families destroyed and torn apart while doing what they thought God had called them to do.
When God called me to "coordinate the adoption of deaf orphans in the world" He knew what I thought about adoption. He knew the stories I knew of the deep sadness and severed hearts in families of those far and those so close to me. Of families destroyed and torn apart while doing what they thought God had called them to do.
Yes, I questioned, "WHY?" "WHY would you call ME to do this? You KNOW what I have seen with my own eyes?" I have cried with those I loved when they loved seemingly in vain. This was before His call ever came.
I believe that is one reason why His call was so clear, so unmistakable. He knew without it I could never be convinced to do such a thing. He knew my past, what He had allowed and planned for me to experience of adoption. He knew it would impact His calling for me. This journey He has called me to, to walk with those who have been called to adopt is not something I would ever have chosen by choice, but He is the One who does the choosing.
Before, I walked it WITH those He had knitted my life to, because He calls us to "do this life together". Now, He wants me to take part in this process of willfully bringing the great possibility of pain and suffering into the lives of those families He calls to adopt and the children He places in them.
He knew I would search and search for some way to give hope in the midst of the pain of adoption. And that is the parallel journey He has me on, searching for not only resources for families to embrace to help ease the pain of adoption but for the true purpose of pain and suffering...His purpose!
This life...it is not my own. It is His. He bought it with the precious blood of Jesus Christ His only Son.
Why? Why would I think that earthly adoption would be any less painful than yours and my heavenly adoption? The pain our Savior endured on the cross to approve our adoption into God's family was beyond anything you and I can truly comprehend. Yes, it was physically one of the most, if not the most, excruciating and horrific ways to die, nailed to a cross and for all the world to see. But what of the pain, the suffering it caused the Trinity? What was it like for the One who knew no sin to become sin for us? We have no idea!
Why would I assume adoption meant 'happily ever after' when yours and mine does not? Why do I expect these precious ones who know nothing of love before would willingly embrace love without a time of testing?
How much testing, and for how many years, do you and I force our God through to prove His love for us before we are fully convinced and deeply embrace Him no matter what He allows to touch us and those we love? He died on that cross...is that not enough? Obviously not!
There are those who avoid me because they are afraid I will try to convince them to adopt. The opposite it far more true. I spend much time trying to convince folks not to adopt, UNLESS of course God has "called" them unmistakenly to do so. Once He has convinced them of His plan and families are sure of it, I then tell them the truth about adoption. It is painful. It causes trauma. Many will suffer because of it. It will, however, be the greatest faith-building experience of their lives. They will be forced to depend solely on God to be able to persevere on His lifelong journey called adoption.
The refiner's fire becomes the hottest just before the dross, the impurities, the sin is set free from the pure and floats to the top to be skimmed off leaving nothing but the purest gold. How we have come to believe this life, this life of following Christ, should be free of pain and suffering I do not know. But unless we can gain a better understanding of His perspective, which is clearly seen in His Word, we will continue to doubt His love when things we call "unloving" happen.
Do I understand fully God's purpose's for pain and suffering? Or why He has planned that pain and suffering are what can cause you and I to be what conforms us to the image of His Son? NO! This is a part of that great mystery that you and I must accept by faith. UNLESS He reveals this to us as we are depending on Him as we go through those flames of purifying. That revelation, of the intimacy those who feel with their God "in the midst" of the fire is like nothing else. It cannot be compared to anything of this world, thankfully.
I had not planned to share all of this, but it seems He wanted me to write it down, if just for my benefit.
The earthly adoption of precious children is not the end of the story, but just the beginning. But I believe without His adoption of these precious ones their earthly adoption is in vain. It is His adoption of them that will truly give them life, life abundant and life eternal. Apart from His adoption His will for adoption goes unfulfilled.
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