When
I was a teenager my dad and step mom took in a mother and son. The boy’s name was Corey. I remember growing close to this little boy the
more I got to know him. Eventually our
family parted ways, and it looked like Corey’s mom was headed back into hard
times and a life that would not be fitting for them to stay with my family. My dad had rules he expected people who were
staying with us to follow. To some of us
adoption is an unfamiliar and unusual thing. Adoption is bringing someone into your home on
a regular basis and treating them like family. I think that experience with Corey might have
been the closest I will ever get to adoption--at least in my immediate family. The Hanke’s have continued to do what I preach
about at weddings: one of the purposes
of marriage is to be fruitful and multiply.
I
have run into people who find that situation is not in the plans for them. Sometimes this is a long and painful road,
which ends with discussions of what they want their family to look like. As this reality is perceived, many decisions result
from it; but I have been there to rejoice with families that have chosen
adoption. The amazing thing is that they
connect with all kinds of stories of people who have been adopted. So often our first thoughts rarely consider
the possibility of adoption. I guess
there is that truth that God’s original plan of having children was set up in a
certain way. But of course we know that
sin has altered so many of God’s original plans for our lives.
In
the last two weeks I have been blessed to do two baptisms. In every baptism, my favorite part is when I
take the baby and baptize him or her, and then pray with the parents and
sponsors at the altar. Then I get to
take the baby, present him or her to the congregation, which allows everyone to
rejoice that the baby is now adopted into the family of God. If we truly had God’s eyes we would see the sin
that little cute baby struggles with, and then we would see the amazing gift as
the child is adopted into God’s family. The
miraculous thing about adoption is that the child who is adopted now receives
the joys of being part of that new family. The image of our adoption into the family of
Christ is often lost in our lack of knowledge of adoption. Most of the time it is just because we don’t
think about it. This image of being
adopted and calling our father in heaven “Abba,” or “Daddy,” is lost. We lose the idea of being able to run to our
new daddy who has blessed us with the greatest gift we ever could want--the
gift of salvation. This weekend we take
a moment to reflect on this image of our adoption in Christ.
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