There are so many places I can go with this blog post. There are many facets to this discussion… and I’m just going to think through this “out loud.”
My thoughts stem from this sentence: “You are not Jesus.”
We have heard this from respected people and it’s possible that I’ve said it to people myself. Lately, I’ve heard it in reference to our adoption, meaning that we should not be obligated to pursue an adoption… even though there are orphans abandoned and available to adopt. It’s a hard truth that there are more hurts in the world than I personally can tend. Absolutely. We need to be sensitive to what God is calling us personally to do. Our response lately has been, “No, we aren’t Jesus, but God told us to adopt and we are just trying to follow Him.”
The phrase still bothers me. So I have tried to break it down to what it means… because these are some other things that I hear when people say,
“We are not Jesus.”
1. We are not all powerful/We need to know our limits.
2. Saving orphans is not our responsibility; It is God’s.
3. Orphans are often very broken people; you can not save/heal them… only Jesus can.
Reasons why these are true:
1. We need to use wisdom to carefully care for those things God entrusts to us. There are situations with more or less “risk” of failure (or a disrupted adoption) and if you’re going to do something very risky, you need to be sure you have God’s blessing. And it’s true… our human strength runs out.
2. Orphans belong to God and He has a special place in His kingdom for them. He is their defender and He is the sovereign Lord.
3. Jesus is the worker of miracles and many children will never become like their mainstream peers in many areas of their development without a miracle. (Including emotional and social development) Nobody should adopt thinking they’re going to get the perfect child.
Reasons why these are false (and the bit about this particular phrase that has been bugging me):
1. No, we are not all powerful, but I believe that God calls us to do things harder than we are capable of… so that we will rely on Him. If God tells you to do something that you know is too hard for you, does that mean that He isn’t really asking you? I can do all things through him who strengthens me. (Phi. 4:13) For example, we had no idea how we were going to care for our girls and two new sons at the same time. But we had confident faith that God had led us to both boys. So, impossible though it may have seemed, we knew God would give us the strength or send help! I am so glad we followed. I could have missed out on Jordan!
2. It’s not our responsibility? But, we are the “hands and feet” of Christ. If God is going to go about saving orphans, just how is He going to do it? I would (honestly!) love to see it done without His human creation! But if redeeming orphans on this side of heaven is going to happen, it is probably our responsibility. (just like other Christian missions…)
3. Orphans have been broken… they have at least lost their first family. We’re going to do what we can to save/heal Jordan… but in the end, he is just our son. He’s not some project. He’s a little boy. And adopting him means we’re committing to him for the rest of our lives. This is a relationship. Just imperfect parents and an imperfect child. Imperfection doesn’t mean we shouldn’t love each other.
I’m sorry this is written in a way that’s so difficult to read. I think you can gather somewhat my mental processing of the matter. What do think?