Adoption is a Heart Matter

This week a child was born that many would say shouldn’t have been. He has Down Syndrome, and if you believe the likes of the abortion industry and those who like to pick and choose the “perfect” genes, a child like this, a child less than perfect by those standards, should be aborted, not given life. Tell that to the family that adopted him.

Fortunately, God “who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were” (Romans 4:17) had another plan for this child and many others. The vision of the Father who formed all babies together in their mother’s womb (Psalm 139:13) is greater than the vision of those whose hearts are defiled by the spirit of the age, suggesting some life is more valuable than others based on the wants of humans.

When Jesus insisted that no one hinder the little children from coming to Him (Matthew 19:14), He didn’t present an exclusion for some types of children. In fact, it was Jesus who said “the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” Children. He wasn’t talking about children perfect in the eyes of a perverted world who assigns value to things with no eternal bearing, but was making the point that it was the young ones perfect in their heart  toward Him and pure in their spirit of running to Him.

While this blog could be about any child born who might have been aborted, my heart is stirred by various friends I have who have actually stepped up to adopt children others may label unwanted for whatever reason. Many times a mother has been duped into believing abortion is right for her because she has been deceived by the voices that sound the loudest and don’t realize what would be on the other end of that birth.

Someone wants that child. This baby, who may have seemed an accident, will be intentionally loved by a family who will be the arms of Jesus to him. He will never want for an ounce of love. He will know from his earliest ability to comprehend this that he is loved, wanted, accepted, and longed for. Chances are, he’ll never have to seek out drugs or girls to fill a hole because that hole will be filled from the day of his birth by his family, and then by Jesus, when he understands who really gave him life. This is the miracle of birth, coupled with adoption. This is the cry of the mother who wants to love another child, whether or not he lived in her womb before entering the world.

Some psychologists’ IQ test might say that your college-educated brain has a higher ability than this baby will have. Some athlete might say your ability to throw a ball is better than this child’s potential skill. Some doctor might say that an “unintended” pregnancy is better off terminated for the sake of the child. But none of these looks on the heart.

See, it doesn’t really matter who has the fastest brain or body. It doesn’t matter if a human being deems a life as having value—because Jesus does.

Consider what God says in 1 Samuel :

⁶ When they arrived, Samuel saw Eliab and thought, “Surely the LORD’s anointed stands here before the LORD.” ⁷ But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” (1 Samuel 16: 6-7)

We use this Scripture of God anointing David to talk about how God sees our heart even when we aren’t successful in the eyes of the world, and that’s a true application, but it’s so much bigger. Can we imagine what God sees when He looks at the heart of the unborn? Does the creator of all life accept the strong one and the highly intelligent one over the weak one?

It sounds pretty silly in print, doesn’t it? We know the answer. Adoption of those who might have been aborted is literally living the heart of God by acting like Him and assigning value to those society might deem invaluable for whatever reason, fulfilling the picture of the spirit of Elijah before the coming of the Lord:

¹⁷ He will also go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, ‘to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children,’and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” (Luke 1:17)

These are our heroes. Not the guy who hit the home run last night, not the MVP, but these men and women who say yes to adoption and who answer the call to care for the orphan.