Theology of Adoption #1
A friend recently asked me if I ever think about my life before being adopted, if I miss my heritage, culture, life before adoption. It’s kind of funny, because I was only 6 months old when I was adopted... But if I could remember those first 6 months, how could I miss that prior life before my adoption? I was an orphan baby, in a room full of other unwanted babies, family-less children, homeless kids. I sometimes wonder if I had a number and if so, what was it.. 4056?
What love, community, hope does someone have who is family-less? What opportunities are afforded to the nameless? What privileges do children have that move from orphanage to orphanage and foster home to foster home? What future do most orphans have? When I was adopted, I was given a new name, a family, a home, new clothes, new toys, new opportunities and privilege. I got a room that was mine, Legos, the first Nintendo, played little league with my dad and eventually even got a dog that would sleep with me every night. I had come from an orphanage in S. Korea, with no physical possessions and only the name given to me from the orphanage - Seok-Ho Kang. But now adopted, I was given a new name - Erik Seok-Ho Naylor. All of the possessions of my new family were mine and the privilege to be an American and part of the Naylor family was mine. I now had grandparents, cousins and a family cabin to run around at every summer. I now lived in the United States, the world power of our day, where I was afforded the privilege to attend great schools and eventually a university; through adoption I had all of my needs fulfilled.
So, how could I miss my old life? The life prior to adoption? Do we see our adoption through Christ into God’s family this way? We should. Because even my story and experience is just a glimpse, only a shadow, an incomplete picture, not close in comparison to the love, community and hope we have as Christians in the adoption Jesus paid for.
+++++ I heard this guy, Tony Merida, at a conference and God used him to start my own thinking on the theology of adoption. Below is an older video I found of his on the Theology of Adoption. May we all see our state as orphans or once orphans and be overwhelmed by the cross, the grace and forgiveness freely given to us. http://tonymerida.net/2011/november-13-2011-adoption-from-slaves-to-sons/