My title for this devotion is Forgotten vs Adopted.
I was reading today about adoption. What a beautiful thing! I know of several folks who have adopted-both here and in foreign countries.
- My brother and his wife who adopted a baby girl from China (Lea) over 16 years ago.
- A couple from the church who had just adopted a baby from China when I moved here in 2005 (Annalei- whom you may read about someday as an Olympic diver), and another in 2010 (Meilynn was about 7 or 8 and was a phenomenal gymnast now cheerleader with one of the prettiest smiles you will ever see).
- Another couple adopted Lucy as a baby with severe clef palate damage. She is now in high school.
- A former blogger, Jason, and his wife adopted a young man from Japan.
- Zee (a blogger friend from Ukraine) and her husband, Sam, who have adopted Zhora (George) and Zhenya (Jenny), who sure look ornery but also a ton of fun in their picture. They are about 6 & 5.
- Others who have adopted children in the states and those who want to. (The system is broken).
I cannot even begin to tell you how much I respect those people. Adopting someone not only means that couple taking a step forward, it also means giving a child a new life, a life they would have never known. Bought out of less than desirable circumstances and brought into a situation that says, “Family. You are wanted. You are loved.”
Can there be a much better picture of our welcome into God’s family? Our existence screamed, “Lost! No home! No love!” Ephesians 2 uses two words “But God” to show the line of demarcation from what once was to what it became and is now. We are saved from and shown to. We are saved from a life of lostness and given a life to meaning, hope and purpose.
Then I read more this morning. It also says we are given a “spirit of adoption.” I was reading in Ezekiel and 36:26-27 says,
And I will give you a new heart, a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.
Can there be any better description of adoption? A new family. A new heart. A new spirit. All the rights and privileges of a natural member of the family.
“Thank you, Father, for adopting me into Your family. For rescuing me from no life to a life that is far more than I dreamed. Thank you for my new heart and my new life.”
I hear the term “Forever Home” as many of the kids that are adopted come out of the foster system… Thankful God has given me a forever home. It’s going to be a big big house, with lots and lots of rooms.
Where we can play FOOOOTBALL!
I can’t think of the next line from the song! Ahhhh…..Used to love that song.
I ditto your thanksgiving, Bill! Hallelujah!
It has a big, big yard!!!!
Yeah. I think we need a big big yard before we can play football. 🙂
I so admire those folks who choose to be foster parents or actually adopt children into their families. Such love and care! The same our loving Father has shown to us by calling us His children.
Blessings, Bill!
Amen. That is the heart of God; to love children as your own that didn’t come from you. That is a miracle in itself.
I too respect and appreciate those hearts that are inspired and obedient to God.