Spittin' Image

I have been told that my youngest son is a "spittin' image" of his father. Now my son is a handsome looking four-year-old so I am taking that as a full compliment. It is amazing how our children grow up to look like us. My oldest son has similar characteristics of his mother. Walk into a childcare center and you watch as parents arrive and you can match up the kids to their parents pretty easily. I even met a woman one time who considered her dogs as her children. She called them her children. And you know what? After visiting with her, her dogs actually did look like her.

One of the rituals of the traditional church is the children's moments. It is that time in the service where the pastor calls all the children down front and at the same time the parents are squirming on the edge of their seat fearful of what their child will blurt out. One common children's lesson is how we are created in the image of God and how all of are a reflection of God. The pastor may use the illustration of how children look like their parents.

We don't do children's moments in our service and it is a good thing because this lesson would never work. We have children who looking nothing like their parents. Children and parents whose race don't match up. We have siblings who sit beside each other and you never consider them brother and sister. The gene pool of the child who calls the adult mom or dad doesn't match. Why? Because we have taken parenting to another level with the act of adoption. we have brought adoption out of the periphery of society. We have made a conscious decision not to consider adoptive children as second class citizens. Adoption is a reality in our faith community because we understand ourselves as a Kingdom of rescued orphans.

In order for us to take seriously the call of adoption we must first understand our own adoption in the eyes of God. Romans 8:14ff says, "For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children.Now we call him, “Abba, Father.” For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children" (New Living Translation)

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