Adoption, by Russell Moore

My family loves adoption.  My church loves adoption.  One of my three children is adopted, and as I look around our church, I see children adopted domestically, through private agencies and state foster care, adopted as babies and adopted as older children, adopted from Africa and Europe.  Any my church isn't very big!  I love that it's a part of our church's culture.

Russell Moore wants that to be the case for every church, and I'm with him.  In Adoption: What Joseph of Nazareth Can Teach Us about This Countercultural Choice, he writes, "Imagine if Christian churches were known as the places where unwanted babies become beloved children."  Amen, brother.  Joseph is our model.  His teenage fiance had become pregnant from someone else.  He modeled the love God has for us as Jesus grew up.

I applaud Moore's commitment to adoption and his extensive writing promoting it.  He emphasizes the spiritual importance of adoption.  It "isn't charity.  It isn't part of a political program. . . . It's spiritual warfare."  Adoption not only makes a difference in the life of a child, it makes a difference in the spiritual realm as well.  I hope many more churches take up the mantle of adoption, not only to meet the needs of the many children without a family, but to demonstrate to the world that there is enough love in the kingdom of God for every child, and that no child is worthless or unwanted.

(One note about the book: This is actually a chapter taken from his earlier book Adopted for Life.  I presume the idea is that in this booklet form, Moore can get the message to more people and more people would be likely to read it.  I received it as an advance electronic review copy [for which I'm grateful].  If I were buying it, I think I would spend the extra couple of bucks to get Adopted for Life.)

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!