Timothy, with me. The kind cashier asked, “How old are they?” I replied, “Six years old.” Before I could say another word, Benjamin blurted out, “And please don’t ask if we’re twins. It drives him crazy!”
Well, it doesn’t really drive me crazy. But the questions: “Are they brothers?” and “So which ones are adopted?” and “So you have two adopted and two of your own?” have really prompted me to ponder the way we view what’s really important. And they’ve prompted me to ponder how we often construct a way of organizing the world that makes the Gospel even more alien to us than it already is.
Touchstone has now posted the text of my article, “The Brotherhood of Sons: What Some Rude Questions about Adoption Taught Me about the Gospel of Christ” to the magazine’s website. This article takes a preliminary look at the assumptions behind these questions, and the answers to them. It is the first fruits of a book project I am now working on for Crossway on adoption and the church.
If you’re interested in this subject, here’s a message on the issue from 2003 called “Are They Brothers? The Spirit of Adoption and the Unity of the Church.” And here’s an article on adoption and the gospel from last May.
I plan to post more on this in a few days, but, in the meantime, my hope is not that you ask better questions, but that you pray about adopting a fatherless child, or funding an adoption, or praying fervently for those in your congregation the Lord is calling to adopt.
