Adoption and Brokenness

I am constantly in awe of how adoption is intricately woven through the gospel. My buddy Travis Marsh spoke about adoption at my church this past Sunday. His family represents three generations of adoption. The gospel is woven into the fabric of his story.

He talked about the brokenness inherent in adoption. Without pain and suffering, adoption would not exist. Adoption is necessary because families break - a single mom is unable to care for her baby, birth parents die or run away, or any of a myriad of circumstances can create a need for a new family.

In the gospel, we're all from a broken family. The family of Adam is screwed-up. This past week, I realized that I like to lead when I feel competent and like to follow when I feel insecure. I vacillate between those two extremes depending on my mood, which can shift by the hour. My leadership mindset is weak and self-centered. I am dysfunctional and I come from a dysfunctional family.

Adoption is the process of leaving one family and entering into another. As such, there's another pain present in this. It is the pain of separating from the old family. The familiar, no matter how broken, is always tough to bid farewell to. There is security in what we know and comfort in the predictable.

In the gospel, dying is the only way we fully depart the family of sin. Jesus clears a path through brokenness and death so that we can find our way back to our true dad. Its painful to leave old family patterns. Its painful to adjust to new, better family rhythms and traditions. But its the best possible kind of pain and brokenness.

Travis and his wife, Adriane, recently adopted a newborn baby girl. They went a prolonged period of brokenness a lot to get to this point. Here's a link to Travis' post about the triumph after the suffering. Its not a triumph in spite of the suffering; rather its a triumph made all the more vivid because of the suffering.