In Latin culture, we’ve been taught to believe that adoption is a last resort—an option only for families who can’t have biological children, or in some cases, an act of charity.
It’s often assumed that adopted children hold a “secondary” place within families, and jokes or comments about adoption’s supposed inferiority still circulate. We often fail to realize how deeply culture shapes our beliefs—and how an act as profound and biblical as welcoming a child can fade into collective forgetfulness.
In his letter to the Galatians, the Apostle Paul offered a very different and precise understanding of adoption—and how our spiritual identity is defined by it:
“But when the fullness of the time came, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, so that He might redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive adoption as sons. Because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying out, ‘Abba, Father!’ Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.” — Galatians
If we approached adoption through the lens of Scripture instead of culture, we’d see it very differently: as an essential part of our identity as God’s children. We are born bearing God’s image, but we must be born again to truly belong to His family—through the glorious adoption made possible by Jesus.
With that biblical foundation, we can look at our societies—so full of need for this truth—and recognize another reality: the thousands of children who long to live in a family. How does our identity as God’s children connect to the reality of orphans in the world?
Victims of abuse, neglect, and other forms of trauma, many children pray for one thing: a family to adopt them. Their experience of abandonment often clouds their ability to see the goodness of a loving God. Their orphanhood ends up defining both their civil and spiritual condition. Orphans need to be rescued.
“A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in His holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families.” — Psalm 68:5–7
But God has already drawn the plan. Jesus doesn’t just offer salvation for the future—He also teaches us that His Kingdom transforms our present, touching the most vulnerable in our communities through justice, sacrificial love, and service. Christians have always been pioneers of adoption—because it flows from who they are.
God hears the cry of the vulnerable, and His answer is the Church—embodying His eternal love by responding to the needs of orphans with open arms, open hearts, and open homes. The cry of an orphaned child in your community may be the reason you’ve begun to feel called toward adoption. It’s not only in your spiritual DNA; the God you serve is actively working on behalf of children who need what you have the capacity to give.
I’ve worked in the field of adoption in Latin America for over 15 years, and I’ve seen people adopt with the wrong motivations. In most of these cases, there’s a common thread: they never understood their own story of spiritual orphanhood—their inability to earn their place in God’s family. There are many children longing for families, but we must act wisely and with understanding, grounded in the truth of the Gospel.
If you struggle to feel empathy for these orphaned children, I encourage you to reflect on your own journey into God’s family. Not every Christian is called to adopt—but every child of God must understand their own adoption. This awareness compels us to act on behalf of the most vulnerable and to love sacrificially those who are in need.
Perhaps adoption isn’t your specific calling, but your legacy and service should include supporting adoption within your community of faith. Those whom God calls and equips to adopt cannot do it alone. Adoptive families need the support of their whole community—married and single alike—to shine light into the darkness of orphanhood. Let’s build healthy communities that seek to demonstrate God’s Kingdom—adopting orphans, one life at a time.