It Got Personal

Since starting our adoption journey, the Gospel has come to life in a whole new way for me. It has gotten personal. Let me first say that the Gospel, Jesus' life, death and resurrection so that I can spend eternity with God, has always been personal because I have always known that Christ died in my place for my sins. But the deeper we have gone into this adoption, the more the Lord has pulled back the curtains to let me see and understand more clearly exactly what He did for me, for us, when He sent His only Son to die on the cross for our sins.

Ephesians 1:4-6 tells us that God chose us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ before the creation of the world. I love those verses, but recently, my eyes have been opened even wider to the profound and unbelievable truth that they contain. I have mentioned before that Adam and I already love our Ethiopian child so much. My heart swells with joy and love and excitement whenever I think about our sweet baby. When I think about seeing, holding, kissing him/her for the first time, hearing his/her laugh for the first time, comforting him/her for the first time, I almost always start to cry because I am completely overwhelmed and swept away by how much I already love my child. And, odds are, sweet little one is not even born yet. I think about getting to raise this little one, watching this sweet baby become the man or woman God created him/her to be. It is truly almost too much for me to handle.

And then the Lord pauses my heart and stills my mind and whispers a reminder: This is how I feel about you.

You see, the Gospel is an adoption story. It is a Father who loved His children, children who did not yet know Him. He loved them so much that He was willing to pay a high price and endure unthinkable suffering so that His children could be adopted into His family and be His sons and daughters for all eternity. This is such a humbling truth. The Creator of all that exists adopted us. Not because He needed to--God does not need anything--but because He wanted to; it brought Him great joy to bring us into His family, to have us as His sons and daughters and to pour out His deep love onto us unconditionally.

I understand this truth so much more clearly now that we are adopting our own little one. Adam and I will do anything it takes to bring home the child God created for us to love. We know that along the way there will be (and already have been) hardships, trials and sacrifices. But nothing will come between us and our child. The Lord has filled our hearts with a fierce determination (call it Mama and Papa Bear, if you will) to do whatever is necessary to bring our baby home and raise him/her in a home full of love.

Now, multiply that feeling by a gazillion, and you have an idea about the way that God feels about you. He loves you. He longs to bring you into His family. Will you let Him? It isn't always easy, but it is always worth it. He has paid a high price, the life of His Son, to adopt you. He loves you that much.

"For if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, then you will be saved." Romans 10:9

Love,
Baylor