When I was a kid, adoption wasn't often discussed. I remember thinking it must be bad to be adopted. I can recall hearing people speaking in whispers, "She doesn't know she's adopted." In retrospect, I still don't understand the secrecy in most cases.
Now I know several couples who've adopted children, usually at a significant financial cost. Attorneys' fees, other fees I probably don't even know about, travel expenses sometimes. But it's not about the money to those couples. It's never about the cost.
It's about bringing someone else into the family.
Oftentimes, the couple I know who've adopted a child have traveled to a foreign country and chosen a child. And that's the word I wanted to get to when I started this blog.
Chosen.
We refer to the Israelites as God's chosen ones. And they were. They were His people.
Then Christ died for us, and a new covenant took effect. A covenant under which I was adopted. Suddenly I was one of God's chosen. Me! Who am I to be chosen by God? The Israelites could trace their lineage and tell you which tribe they belonged to. Meanwhile, I'm a mutt. If I did one of those DNA tests, I figure it'd look like a wheel of fortune. A little slice of this, a tiny sliver of that, and a whole lot of how-did-that-end-up-there? Like a chihuahua and a Great Dane.
But you know what? It doesn't matter whether I can trace my ancestry back to the Mayflower, the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria, or even a boat on the sea of Galilee.
God adopted me. He chose me. I didn't deserve it. I can't earn that inheritance. I will never be worthy of being His child. And yet ... here we are.
So I encourage you to consider what that means for us. What does it mean to you, personally, to be adopted, chosen by God? Blessed. Humbled. Thankful.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT:
- Spend some time thinking about the cost of your adoption--Christ's sacrifice. Really think about what that means, to be chosen by the Creator to be one of His own children.
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