The Gift of Adoption
Ephesians 1:5 He predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will
My wife and I have had the pleasure to adopt a child. This wasn’t something we set out to do. It just happened through a series of events, completely orchestrated by God, after we moved from Arkansas to West Texas for work. It has most certainly been a blessing. But it has also been, and continues to be, a constant challenge. Children who have suffered trauma, even when adopted at an early age, have lots of hurdles to overcome. There are certain things that he will have to deal with his entire life and will have to learn how to control. We are continually over and over again dealing with these issues on what seems like a daily basis. We were having “one of those days” recently with him when I just looked to the sky and said “Why God? Why does he continually act like this? We have been through this very issue with him several times and yet he constantly keeps repeating this!” It was just like God was standing right next to me when I felt Him say “That sounds just like you, doesn’t it? But I still love you anyway!”
That hit me like a rock! In a time when love was the last thing on my mind, He reminded me of what unconditional love really is. I don’t know about you, but I am constantly overlooking the fact that He loves us unconditionally and that we have been adopted as heirs to His kingdom. We are children of the Creator of everything, the Alpha and Omega, the Most High, The Lord Almighty himself! We are not only adopted by Him, but loved even when we continue to fail Him.
Even though we have been adopted by a perfect God we are, unfortunately, still not perfect. We will still mess up daily, but He still loves us unconditionally. He not only loves us, but the Lord of all creation wants a relationship with each of us. Not just a “friendship” type relationship, but one of Father and child. We are gifted the relationship of child and heirs to Him and His Kingdom. Let that sink in for a moment. He not only knew what you had done up to the point of your salvation, but what you would do in the future as well. He knows everything about us and yet He still chose to gift us the blessing of being one of His children!
I need to be honest for a moment, if we had known the struggles that we were going to have during the fostering process, and also since the final adoption took place, I’m not sure that we would have ever followed through with it. I am so glad that God, even knowing our future, takes us as we are, and as we will be, and loves us anyway. What an awesome Father we have!
When you can, take a moment and listen to Good Good Father by Chris Tomlin. Allowing yourself to really focus on the words and meditate on His unending love. Then in prayer thank Him for allowing you to call Him “Abba Father”.
Romans 8:15 The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.”
Jason Hughs