大象传媒

In yesterday鈥檚 press there was a fascinating article about adoption parties, held by some local authorities to bring together groups of prospective parents and children so that social workers can find the right match between them. Some people are critical of the idea. They say it鈥檚 like speed dating for toddlers. It鈥檚 just not the right way to decide. And at such gatherings, emotions are fraught on both sides, prospective adopters wondering whether the right match will be made, some of the children fearing they will never find a forever-family.

Regardless of the merits and demerits of deciding this way or that, the story made me feel all over again what an extraordinary gesture it is to adopt a child, creating a bond of kinship by an act of choice and love. And it reminded me of one of the most unexpected stories in the Bible.

It occurs near the beginning of the book of Exodus. Pharaoh had just decreed that every male Israelite child should be thrown in the river and drowned. One Israelite woman had a son and was able to hide him for three months. When she could no longer do so, she waterproofed a basket, placed the child in it and set it afloat on the Nile, hoping that someone would take pity on him and rescue him.

Someone did: none other than the daughter of the man who had issued the decree of genocide in the first place. Pharaoh鈥檚 daughter noticed the basket, had it brought to her, saw the child, realised what had happened, and decided to adopt him as her own. She gave him a name: Moses. Eventually he grew to become the man who would lead his people to freedom...

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