Adoption through Christ – His Love for us

What does it mean to be adopted? I looked up the definition in the dictionary and it says this:

To Adopt: to take up and make one’s own; to take by choice into a relationship.

Here is Ephesians, it says we are adopted into God’s family. I put The Message in there, too, because I like how it’s written.

Ephesians 1:3-6 (NIV) "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves."

Ephesians 1:3-6 (The Message) "How blessed is God! And what a blessing he is! He's the Father of our Master, Jesus Christ, and takes us to the high places of blessing in him. Long before he laid down earth's foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love. Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure he took in planning this!) He wanted us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved Son."

Let me tell you about adopting our son. It is such a miracle that we have Josiah. Out of the 143 million orphans in the world, God chose Josiah to be our son. It is a miracle that we decided to adopt at the right time and had the right amount of money at the right time and got all the paperwork done as quickly as we did. We started the adoption process in May 2007. Josiah was born in June 2007 and we got his referral in July 2007. At the end of December 2007, the country stopped all new adoptions. And at that point we didn’t know what would happen but they let all adoptions that were already in process continue. In April 2008, we were able to go and pick him up. Since the country shut down adoptions while we were still waiting for Josiah, a lot of people had longer wait times and some are even still waiting on their children. We were so blessed all the way through the process.

When we got his referral, it was very unexpected. We didn’t even have our paperwork finished. We were called and they sent an email with some medical information which was in Spanish and 3 pictures. We knew he was healthy and that he was only a couple weeks old. At that point, we had to say yes, we want him, or no, we don’t. We didn’t have any doubts, he was our boy. We waited 10 long months with his picture on our frig. It seemed like forever! We can’t imagine not having him in our family. Our hearts are just filled with love for him.

I think about our next adoption a lot. The waiting is the hardest part by far! I would have never thought that I’d be going to china any time during my life. It’s a little scary, yes, but we’d do it in a heartbeat. We don’t know who our daughter is yet but we will travel to the other side of the world for her without a second thought.

Through this process, I understand a little more what God means when he said he adopted us as His sons and daughters. He chose us before the creation of the world. I don’t know who my daughter is but I love her already. I know that God is going to match us up and that He is taking care of her. And just like our kids have full rights as our children, we have full rights and are joint heirs with Jesus. God’s decision to do that for us was based in love. He has always loved us. He has loved us even though we are selfish and we don’t love him and others like we should. We don’t deserve it but he freely gives to us anyway because we are His sons and daughters.

In the light of this love, how can we not work hard every day loving others? I guess, if we are in deep relationship with Him, we will know better how love and His love should flow through us more naturally. It’s so important to be in the Word, memorizing scripture and in prayer. I wish it wasn’t so hard to do!