ADOPTED!

My daughter and her husband who live in another state became foster parents to two boys (brothers) nearly two years ago.  About a year ago they adopted  them.  I remember the first time we were going to meet the boys.   When they announced they were coming for a visit, we were eager to meet our two brand new grandsons for the first time.  We were eager – but we had lots of questions swirling through our minds:    What would they be like?  Since they come from a different culture, would they be able to relate to us and we to them?  Would they be aloof and unsure?  Would we seem that way to them?  With the visit scheduled to last only 5 days, could we realistically expect to do any real bonding in so short a time?  How would they click with our young grandson (about their same age) who lived with us then full time?

It did not take long for our questions to have answers.  The three grandsons were introduced and promptly ran off to play.  They became inseparable over the next few days.  By the time they left, our live-in grandson said he missed them before they were even at the end of the street.  What a joy to see little boys from such different cultures and experience become so close and have so much in common!

And what a joy to experience their smiles and their love, so freely given so quickly!  From the first night they were at our home I had the joy of having three wonderful grandsons all crowded onto my lap as I read them bedtime stories.  We treated them to their first real birthday party, and went as a family to their first outing to a movie theater.  There were constant hugs and smiles and “carry me”s over those glorious days.  By the time they left they had become family as surely as if they were blood.  As they drove away our hearts were full –  we had three grandsons now!  Our hearts were a bit sad – it would be a while before we would be able to return the visit and see them again. 

This must be how God thinks of us.  He moved John to say so in the very first chapter of his gospel:    12 “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God-- 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.”  (John 1:13-14)  We were not born into this world being part of God’s family.  Sin and unbelief had us more widely separated from him than any mere cultural differences have ever separated us from others.  We belonged to the kingdom of darkness and would have remained so, but for the saving love of God in Christ.  He redeemed us through the blood of his Son, sacrificing his own Son in order to make us his sons and daughters.  He washed away with the blood of his Son all that barred us from adoption into his family.  He called us to faith in that Son through Holy Baptism and clothed us all alike in his Son.  In that saving grace all outward distinctions of gender and race and language and socio-economics fell away as he claimed us all alike as his children.  That’s exactly what he tells us through the apostle Paul:  26 “You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.”  (Galatians 3:26-29)

For me, one of the most profoundly reassuring passages that talk about God’s adoption of us is found in John’s first letter (3:1):   “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!”  John can hardly believe it and yet excitedly states that it is true:  God calls us his children!  He really does!  We don’t claim that title; he confers it on us in love because of what he has done for us through his Son. 

And there it is.  By all rights, foster children.  But from God’s point of view, dearly loved and chosen and true children who belong to his family for time and eternity!  We are children who can crawl up in his lap in prayer, pour our hearts out, and know that he cares.  We are children who still sin, and yet he forgives and forgets because of that other Son he sent to the cross in our place.  We are children whom he never tires of gathering in his arms and reading to us again the story of his love and our future home with him in heaven.  Not bad for people who were born orphans, eh?