Back in 1965, my parents had 7 children, of which I was the youngest. We were 6 boys and 1 girl. In order to have another girl, my parents did the math and decided that perhaps adoption would be a way to have a second girl in the family. A chain of events happened in God’s providence that led to them adopting four children (2 boys & 2 girls) from a terminally ill member of the church in the Bay Area who wanted to know her children would be able to stay together and be raised in a good Christian home. She signed over custody of the children a few weeks before passing away. Later that year my parents went through the formal court proceedings and adopted the children into our family. Since that day they have always just been my brothers and sisters, and not secondary in any way.

In 2015 Adoptive Families Magazine surveyed 1,100 families who adopted a child in 2012-2013 and reported:

• Average Total Cost: Adoption Agency – $39,966; Independent Adoption – $34,093

For international adoptions, the costs can be even higher, and as a consequence they are slowly becoming less common.

Average Total Cost of International Adoption by Country 2010-2011/2012-2013

• China: $36,338

• Ethiopia: $45,960

• South Korea: $43,795

• Ukraine: $40,067

As you can see, the cost of adoption is high, and yet thousands of families choose to adopt children anyway. Why? Because when they look into the eyes of that child, they are overwhelmed with love and compassion, and the expense becomes totally worth it to give this child a family.

Yet the expense for our adoption was so much higher for God that it is for human families.

Galatians 4:4-7

“But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.”

Whenever we look at the bread and the fruit of the vine during communion, they represent the price that was paid so that we could be adopted as full members and heirs in the family of God. This should make us eternally grateful that Christ was willing to suffer and die on the cross to pay the price for our sin and to enable our adoption out of slavery and into sonship!