Via Mere Comments, an article about a recent event at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in which 2 professors shared their experiences of adopting children:

“Outside of Christ, we are all orphans,” he [Stinson] said, speaking in January at the Pendergraph women’s ministry event. “All people are born outside of the family of God and the only way to get into the family of God is through Christ. The doctrine of adoption is at the heart of the Gospel and if we are going to be a Gospel-centered people we should take seriously this thing (adoption) that is in front of all of us. Actually adopting someone is a stark picture of the Gospel.”

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The Moores adopted Benjamin and Timothy — both now 5, but from different biological parents — from a Russian orphanage in July 2002 after years of infertility and three miscarriages. Moore said the infertility and miscarriages, though difficult, matured him and Maria spiritually and has allowed them to minister to other couples in similar circumstances.

“Seeing the way that God moved in this (the infertility and adoption process) has helped us understand providence more and trust God more,” he said. “Infertility and miscarriage were horrible, but at the same time we are able to step back and say, ‘If it weren’t for infertility and miscarriage we wouldn’t have Benjamin and Timothy.’ We wouldn’t understand the grace of God the way that we understand it, we wouldn’t understand what it means to love each other the way that we understand it and we wouldn’t understand how to teach the Gospel.”

People struggling with infertility, Moore said, are susceptible to fall into sin not only through ethically questionable reproductive technologies, but also through idolatry.

“Infertile couples could develop an idolatry of having a drive to have their own genetic material in front of them. That is something that ought to be crucified,” he said. “We have had to sit down with infertile couples who are about to begin in vitro fertilization and tell them we don’t think this is right and here is why. I have said to them, ‘You are struggling not with infertility, but with idolatry because you are not really wanting children; you are wanting yourself.’”