A brief survey of history indicates that adoption as we practice it in America is a pretty rare thing. Through the ages it has been more common for people to take in children already kin to them, or to adopt within one’s own class to provide continuation of name and title. Mordecai’s care of Esther and Jacob’s provision for Joseph’s sons are two biblical examples of adoption based on already present relationships. In some cases adoption was near slavery. Other things called adoption provided basic needs but withheld complete family status to adopted children. For most of the Christian era, children without parents or parents able to care for them were either street kids bound for early death, menial workers, or beneficiaries of some sort of religious foster care system. Sometimes the system could care for orphans nominally and other times the provision could not rightly bear the name “care.” Overwhelmingly, it was and is a tough world for parentless children.

The relative wealth of American families following World War II allowed for a boom in adoption that grew for 25-30 years. The groundwork had been laid by the 19th century beginnings of legal monitoring of adoptions, of state involvement to ensure that children were moving into nurturing rather than exploitive situations. President Theodore Roosevelt, with his family’s heritage of philanthropy, called during the early 1900s for adoption by families to replace the foster care system in place. Several economic and social factors caused many years to pass before this call would be widely answered.

Legally regulated compassionate adoption of non-relatives that provides full family status is a modern and mostly American thing, then. Surprisingly for a 50-60 year practice, it also appears to be modeled after, at least similar to, biblical doctrine.

As I thought about this, I’ve come to a conclusion that surprises me a bit. While I’ve often used parenthood as an analogy (God did this first) for understanding the love God demonstrates for us, adoption of children not otherwise kin to us?adoptive parenthood?is specifically a better analogy. No doubt adoptive parents tumbled to this some time back but it’s a new one on me.

Only Paul used the word “adoption” in the New Testament and he actually fleshed it out pretty thoroughly because he was using it in a way unusual to Hebrew and Roman culture. When he told the Galatians that they were sons of God by adoption he added they were the type of sons who were also heirs. Clearly as gentile believers they would have also understood that they were also adopted from the “outside” of God’s people. How rich they’d become by their redemption in Christ! They’d not only been dragged out of the fire but also exalted to family status in a royal household. This grace of God was not only sufficient, a monumental gift already, but also abundant so that orphans became princes.

Perhaps we could say the foster care facilities provided by Christians through the centuries were analogous to God’s grace that pulls us out of the fire. Acceptance as a son or daughter into a loving family, rich and secure beyond your prior imagining, completes the picture by showing us the abundance of his mercy, then.

Weren’t we outsiders to God’s family, foreign in a way that a begotten child could never be? That’s why I say that adoption as we now understand it is a better picture of God’s mercy toward us than is biological parenthood. Of course the love, nurture, and discipline exercised in parenthood would be the same for all children without regard to how they came into a family. Those very useful illustrations remain safe and beneficial.

And in a way, Jesus was adopted, wasn’t he? He was known widely in Nazareth as the son of Joseph (Luke 4:22, John 1:45) and yet Joseph, Mary, and some of their kin knew that he was an adopted son of Joseph. For the Lord, the status ascribed to him as the carpenter’s son was part of his humiliation, creator God living in modest circumstances and under the care of his creatures. He became poor in this and many other ways so that we might become rich (2 Corinthians 8:9). It was his submission to a mortal father figure that made it possible for us to bask in the glory of the perfect Father.

So when we adopt a child, support a family who seeks to adopt, or when we uplift adoptive parenthood in what ways we are able, we’re doing a work we learned from God. I believe we are also acting out our own redemption for all who watch, particularly I’d think for children whose vision of “loving parents” (and a loving heavenly Father) has been pretty fuzzy.

We are tempted to become indifferent toward causes hyped too often or loudly. Our hype-intensive age tempts me to turn off every voice that speaks urgently. That’s a mistake. This is an important time in American Christianity, and in the Southern Baptist Convention. Consider a few important events currently underway.

The health of our leaders?I know of no fewer than eight prominent and influential Southern Baptists who have major health concerns. All of us age and eventually die but now we can name a remarkable list of people, who could predictably have decades of service ahead of them, who face cancer and other ailments at this moment. It is reasonable to assume also that scores of our leaders and mentors additionally face spiritual and leadership challenges unknown to us. The call is that we should systematically pray for them.

Transition at our boards and agencies?Three SBC agencies representing more than three-fourths of our denominational budget are in leadership transition. Three search committees are seeking leaders for our two mission boards and our Executive Committee. These leaders will make important strategy decisions for our missionary endeavors for decades to come. We must, in this day, have visionary and courageous leaders for those causes we would all agree are the reason for our denominational cooperation. Pray for the search committees as they seek God’s will. Pray that the various trustee boards (even those not currently seeking leaders) will be diligent and hard working as they make significant decisions at every meeting. And pray for God’s men, those retiring, those not yet in place, and those who continue to serve at the heads of our seminaries and agencies. Our convention requires leadership beyond what mere men can dream or accomplish in their own power.

The GCR Task Force?This committee will meet late in January to finalize whatever aspects of their report they will make available in February during the SBC Executive Committee meeting. That report will be the 500-pound gorilla as we go to Orlando for our annual meeting this year. I expect some dramatic surprises. Pray for them as they work toward their presentation in Nashville and Orlando. They need divine wisdom for the sake of our unity around priority causes and effectiveness in all we agree to do together.

The threat of fragmentation?Regional and generational balkanization of American Christianity seems more likely than at any time during my life. Millions of trees have given their lives so that hundreds of books and articles can try to explain, hype, or decry the rapidity of change within the cultural context of American evangelicals. I don’t know many people who don’t have strong opinions about what is important and what we should do regarding the current generational leadership hand off. How should current leaders respond to the unique concerns of pastors 15 years younger? How should those not yet in middle age understand the leaders and essentials of our common work? Whether these questions are actually big or small, they occupy much of our attention during a time when other things are also crucial.

Within our convention, I observe a similar divide between east and west, with the Mississippi as the boundary. Those on both sides are passionate about global evangelism and committed to innovative ministry. Some in both regions also seem disrespectful of their brothers across the muddy river. Pray for patience and gentleness within our convention as we speak of significant matters from different contexts. Pray that all of us will gain the virtue of speaking less and listening more. These divisions I observe are common to all evangelicals in our day, especially the first. My concern is specifically for the Southern Baptist Convention and the impact of needless division on our important work. A biblically founded spirit of peace and forbearance in the SBC will deeply impact the work of evangelicals in every locale.

These four things, at least, convict me that I should more regularly pray for those God has placed in leadership within our convention. We shouldn’t wait until we hear of a crisis or surgery or scandal. There will always be important things that come and go without our general knowledge?things that will bear fruit for good or ill before we know anything has happened. That is unavoidable because our work is so widespread and complex. The only way to pray is to pray regularly, on a schedule, so our leaders will be lifted up during times of need and opportunity know to but few. Join me in doing that more faithfully.

ATHENS?A Southern Baptist church was one of two churches in the Athens area heavily damaged by what investigators believe were arson fires set in the early morning hours Tuesday, marking the third such church fire in a week near the East Texas city.

Local authorities are being aided in their investigation by the state fire marshal’s office and the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Authorities suspected burglary at the churches, but Athens Assistant Police Chief Rodney Williams said the investigation is in its early stages.

“I would assume that it is arson, but as far as the motive, we will probably never know,” said John Green, pastor of Lake Athens Baptist Church, which sustained an estimated $500,000 damage to its auditorium. “But our hearts are full and our spirits are encouraged. We believe God is going to bring something good out of this.”

Athens Fire Chief John McQueary said investigators are also seeking clues to a fire early Tuesday at Grace Community Church in rural Henderson County near Athens, as well as a fire last week at nearby Faith Church.

McQueary said dogs trained in detecting accelerants were picking up scents that point to arson, but further testing to confirm that might take up to a week.

Green said he is thankful that the church office was not damaged and the gym had only minor smoke and water damage.

Lake Athens was scheduled to meet for its Wednesday night services at a local fish hatchery and Sunday at a music hall in Athens.

The church fires follow two others in recent weeks in nearby Van Zandt County, the Athens Daily Review reported.