Adoption as Sons and Daughters

Adoption into "the family" is one of the core features of an Orthodox worldview. From my first moments of learning about the Orthodox Church, the phrase "the people of God" kept re-surfacing.

Ruth's fervent words in the Church's history express the essence of the modern day Orthodox person's life: "Don't ask me to leave you, or to go back from following after you: for where you go, I will go; and where you stay, I will stay: your people will be my people, and your God my God." (Ruth 1:16) Ruth was greatly and abundantly blessed by her fervent decision to remain with her mother-in-law: she was re-married to a man named Boaz and gave birth to Obed, the ancestor of Jesus.

When a person becomes Orthodox they are guided by a priest who becomes the person's spiritual father: a wise man available for questions, guidance, prayerful support. A member of the Church must also be adopted by godparents: two older, wiser members of the Church who have a special significance to the person becoming Orthodox, and who take responsibility for the child in the faith. In a marriage, there must be family witnesses to the creation of a family. So too, in Orthodoxy, there must be family witnesses to the adoption of this new child in the faith. Joining the Orthodox Church is in every way the same as joining a family. As Christ is the head of the Church, so Christ is the head of this family.

Dear Lord Jesus, lead us again and again to the promised land, where God's people live together and worship together, free from the encumbrance of sin and alive in the Spirit.