Worship leaders and co-founders of Bethel Music shared their story of adoption and how their child has changed their life completely.
The Redding, California couple, Brian and Jenn Johnson, are on a mission to inspire others to adopt. Their fourth child Ryder Moses was adopted, and his name means “adopted deliverer, they said he was a gift from God at just the right time in their lives.
“It was like heaven met our heart,” Jenn said between sessions of the Heaven Come conference that was held in Los Angeles and Dallas. “And I just felt like the Lord said ‘I have this for you if you want this, like a gift, I have a present for you’…and it was like ‘yes’ before you even asked.”
Sometime earlier, Jenn had called up friend and fellow singer-songwriter, Rita Springer, who told her that the Lord had told her years ago that Jenn would adopt, but she wasn’t to tell her.
Jenn started the paperwork with Christian Adoption Consultants the very next day and the entire process of adoption was completed in one month.
Christian Adoption Consultants matches couples with women who put their children up for adoption. Both parties have to agree before a match is made, the Johnsons were matched with a birth mother on only their third try.
Jenn shared that it was a miracle how when the birth mom saw their profile picture, she said she knew they were the ones. They developed a relationship with her and were at the hospital when baby Ryder was born. They were with her and prayed with her at the hospital for several days, and connected with her six months later.
“She came to final closure ceremony in the courtroom and the judge said that’s the first time in his entire career he’d ever seen a birth mother come to the finalization of adoption,” Johnson added. “It was just one thing after the next, just amazing.”
They shared that during the adoption process, Jenn was driving on a long country road when she recorded a song on her phone about the “faithfulness” and “kindness of God,” which gave birth to the song, “Goodness of God.”
Ryder was brought on stage in front of thousands at the “Heaven Come” conference by the Johnson’s and said their adoption story has inspired many others and even more in the future.
“I just think to encourage people, ask the Holy Spirit how you apply the call that we are called to take care of widows and orphans, how are you doing that and how is God is asking [you] to do that?” Johnson said. “And maybe it’s not to adopt a child into your family, maybe it is, but maybe it’s to give to someone that wants to adopt but can’t afford it, but really to carry the heart of adoption and to make sure that we’re staying connected to it and sacrificing for it.”
Adoption is a beautiful reflection of God’s love to humanity, as the Father adopted us as His sons and daughters through Jesus Christ.
James 1:27, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”