Week 43 - Tim White - Understanding Adoption

From Earthly Families to Spiritual Inheritance

Today, I wanted to take some time to talk about adoption. Legally speaking, adoption is the process of taking a child who was not born to you into your family as your own. It grants the adopter all the exact same legal rights and duties as a birth parent, making it as if that child were born right into the family.

While I’ve always admired friends who have adopted, I recently started reflecting on just how deep this process really is when viewed from a child's perspective. Watching videos of kids receiving adoption papers and seeing their faces light up with joy is incredible. Moving from feeling unwanted to feeling fully wanted, loved, protected, and provided for is a powerful experience.

Examples of Adoption in Scripture

When looking at the Bible, there are several key figures who experienced adoption:

• Moses: His parents placed him in a basket on the Nile River to save his life, where Pharaoh’s daughter found him, felt love for him, and raised him as her own.

• Esther: After her parents passed away, her uncle Mordecai adopted and raised her.

• Jesus: Although God is His Father, Jesus was adopted and raised on Earth by Joseph, who accepted Him as his own child.

Our Spiritual Adoption

This brings us to our own story of spiritual adoption. As Paul writes in Ephesians 1

When we accept the offer of salvation by giving our hearts to Jesus, we are immediately adopted into God's family and become joint heirs with Christ. Being a joint heir means that everything given to Jesus becomes ours as well; we are no longer outsiders, but true children of God.

You Are God's Favorite

Whenever my kids and grandkids visit, I like to whisper to each one individually, "You're my favorite."Even though they know I say it to all of them, it still puts a big smile on their faces. I want to remind you that you are God's favorite, too—if He had a refrigerator, your picture would be right on it!

If you ever want to chat more about what it means to be part of God's family, please feel free to reach out to me.