YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE A SUPERHERO

I can't tell you how many times I've been out with my mom and someone mentions one of the famous big family statements.

"Are they all yours?"

"Gosh, you sure have your hands full!"

"I have no idea how you have so many children, and stay home with them all day everyday.  I just don't have that kind of patience."

"You are so awesome for adopting.  Your son is so lucky."

There is one main problem with all of these statements:

They imply that you have to be a superhero to have five children, let alone adopt one.

If you've been coming to this blog for any amount of time, you know that I'll never stop talking about your calling to the orphan.  But the more I've written those posts and the more I've studied orphan care and adoption, I've realized one key thing.

God is not asking you to be a superhero.  

In fact, the only true superhero there ever was set the ultimate example for us in adoption - and that's Jesus Christ.  He doesn't expect you to have the most patience.  He doesn't expect you to have met all the needs.  He doesn't expect you to have the biggest house, or the biggest car, or the most money.  I'll never forget the day I mentioned to my mom about a friend of ours that was adopting again that they need a bigger house to fit all those kids.  She responded by saying that no one ever needs a bigger house to have more kids/follow God's calling.  And it hit me right there.  God doesn't expect us to have everything figured out.

In fact, it should be pretty clear to us.  Yet we fail to see it completely.  We let lack of patience, a huge house, money, car space, or basically any single thing get in the way, because we think that only superheros can adopt.  Only superheros can truly follow God's calling.

But that's not the point of God's commands to care for the orphan.

No, throughout the Gospel we are commanded to care for the orphan.  Among those commands, and all throughout the Bible, it's so very crystal clear that we sure as heck don't have a single thing figured out.  We all fail and we all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and we all ruin everything and we all sin and we all are never ever going to be The Ultimate Superhero with the perfect house and the perfect car and the perfect bank account.  And that's what holds so many of us back.  We feel we have to be all the way there for when we truly follow His calling.

Jesus already gave us new life.  Jesus already gave us a new identity.  Jesus already gave us a new family.  And then Jesus gave us, His people, the ability to give a child a new life, a new identity, and a new family.  But he never said we have to wait until we're perfect to do just that.

The truth is, Jesus is already the ultimate Savior.  Jesus is already the ultimate Superhero.  He's already adopted us.  He's already gone through what had to be done to get your heart.  And He does it so perfectly.  We can't compare ourselves to Jesus in that way, because we fall short everyday.  We will never truly be ready.  We will never truly be fully prepared, fully funded, fully encouraged, fully virtuous.  But we can follow His calling.

You don't have to be a superhero to follow the Lord's leading.