A Serious Responsibility
civic leader - approaches you and asks you to take care of something
for them. You would be honored, and probably not a little nervous
about being able to live up to the level of trust they have somehow
decided to have in you.
Now imagine that that something they have asked you to look out for is
immeasurably valuable, more so than anything else you've ever owned or
even come into contact with. Again, you are honored, but now even
more gulping hard as you think about whether or not you can handle
this responsibility.
This is what adoption is like. The Christian's perspective is that
all parenting is a form of stewardship, but the analogy seems more
real when you have adopted. For some reason, a child is in need of a
parent; and however willing we are to be that parent, and however
honored we are to serve in that capacity, we are sobered by the
infinite majesty of the One who has asked us to be a steward, and by
the infinite worth of the thing we have been asked to steward.
Parenthood is not easy, and adoption poses its unique challenges. I
do not like to feel inadequate, but daily do so in light of my
responsibilities. It is good to be reminded of who has asked me to
bear these responsibilities, of the preciousness of what I am bearing,
and of the many ways in which I have been given much with which to
bear them.
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