Q. 34 What is adoption? A. Adoption is an act of God's free grace, whereby we are received into the number, and have a right to all the privileges of the sons of God. As 1 John 3:1 exhorts us, let us: "Behold what manner of love God has bestowed on us, that we should be called the children of God!" It is a gracious loving thing for a couple to adopt a child. Here is a child that is for some reason without parents to care for him. What a wonderful thing it is for the child to be taken in to a home!