Adopted

Chuckle: "Adolescence is that period when a boy refuses to believe that someday he will be as ignorant as his parents."

Good Quote: "Children are the hands by which we take hold of heaven." --Henry Ward Beecher

"In Love He (God) predestined (chose) us to be adopted as his sons (children), through (faith in) Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will . . . . " (Ephesians 1:5 NIV).

To adopt means to choose and take someone into one's family by a legal procedure. There's something about the word "adopted" that stirs a warm feeling within us. When a child is adopted, we know he or she is accepted, loved, and wanted as part of a family. Being adopted denotes a special bond between the adopters and adoptee. Listen to this touching story.

A new mother stayed with her parents for several days after the birth of her first child. One afternoon she remarked to her mother that it was surprising that the baby had dark hair, since both her husband and she were fair. The grandmother said, "Well, your daddy has black hair." To which the daughter replied, "But Mama, that doesn't matter, because I'm adopted." With an embarrassed smile, that mother said the most wonderful words her daughter had ever heard: "I always forget."

Can you imagine how much her mother's expression of love and acceptance meant to this daughter? Similarly, God has expressed his love for us, and says, "I always forget" that sin once kept you from being my child. All Christians are adopted children of God and are accepted by God with the same unconditional love that this mother had for her daughter. In Scripture, adoption is a relationship conferred by God's act of free grace which redeems each of us from the bondage of sin.

". . . God sent his Son, born of woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons (children) . . . So you are no longer a slave, but a son (child); and since you are a son (child), God has made you also and heir" (Galatians 4:5-7 NIV). "Now if we are children, then we are heirs -- heirs of God and co-heirs (of God's kingdom) with Christ. . ." (Romans 8:17 NIV).

Adoption is the legal proceeding whereby a person who is not a child's natural parent becomes the child's legal parent. Adopted children enjoy all the same rights and privileges as biological children. In a similar spiritual way, we, as adopted children of God, enjoy God's favor as does His one and only Son, Jesus.

God's intention, and the result of our adoption as his children, is to give us a change in status, which was planned from eternity and brought about by Jesus Christ. The presence of the Spirit of God in our lives is both the instrument and the result of this relationship. Our being chosen as the adopted children of God is solely dependent upon the atoning blood of Jesus Christ and our personal saving relationship with Christ through faith.

Love, Jerry & Dotse