Adopted

January 3

We who believe in Jesus are blessed to be adopted into the family of God. In some minds, there is a stigma to the word ‘adoption.’ It conjures thoughts of a lesser place in the family circle, a reduced inheritance of the family wealth. But to those who know the truth of God, it is a term of privilege and worth.

Children are sometimes born into families by ‘accident.’ Not every child who is ever conceived is wanted. Consequently, children are sometimes abandoned, sometimes aborted—in some way ‘sacrificed’ at the altar of self-indulgence where many of our day worship the human appetite rather than the Living God.

But, no child is ever adopted by accident. The child who is adopted into a family may know that he was sought for and he was profoundly desired long before he came to the parents who longed for him. The adopted child may know beyond doubting that his parents not only desired him but sacrificed of their earthly substance to attain him.

They may know that their parents, as Paul stated of the Lord in I Corinthians 1:9, “God has called you to share everything with His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, and He is faithful.” What Paul is emphasizing here is that God sets us on a par with Jesus—to the degree that everything that is Christ’s is ours—and it is ours forever.