I believe the first time my parents told me I was adopted was one day when we were driving home. We were heading up our dirt driveway and I was in the backseat. I remember my mom telling me that they adopted me at birth, and if I ever wanted to know who my birth mother was, they would help me. They also told me they didn’t know who my birth father was.
I remember thinking to myself that my parents are my parents—the ones who raised me. I don’t need to know about my birth mother or father. And to this day, I still haven’t tried to find out more about them, but I certainly have thought about this a lot. I have learned that I have a brother, and I know on my birth father’s side, I have at least four half-brothers.
As children of our Father, we have the joy and privilege of being His children—daughters and sons who are deeply loved, relationally hugged, and emotionally tugged in our hearts to be like Him.
As a Christian, I have thought about what it means to be adopted as a child of God.
“He predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will.”—Ephesians 1:5
I thank God my birth mother chose to keep me and not take the way of my death to deal with my unexpected conception. I also thank God that, from the beginning, she knew I needed a family that she could not provide. She planned for me to have a life that was fuller and more abundant than I would have experienced had she not given me up for adoption.
As a parent, I, too, have set my children up to be adopted. By the work of the Holy Spirit within me, I brought them to be baptized and adopted as children of the Father through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Our God has adopted my kids, who are now like me—children of God.
And as my parents told me I was adopted, I as a parent have told my children that they are adopted. I pray that they want to know their adoptive Father. I want them to see their adoption as a family that is greater than the family I can provide. My responsibility as a parent is to introduce them to the reality that God has adopted them and loves them more than I ever can.
My children’s responsibility is to do what I haven’t done with my birth parents: get to know their adoptive Father. As children of our Father, we have the joy and privilege of being His children—daughters and sons who are deeply loved, relationally hugged, and emotionally tugged in our hearts to be like Him.
One of my greatest joys is that my parents (who adopted me) have given me everything that is theirs. They have given me more than I deserved. They loved me when I yelled and screamed. They cared for me when I was wounded physically, emotionally, and spiritually. They’ve never said, “You’re not our flesh and blood.”
This is your reality as an adopted child of the Father. He has made you an inheritor of everything that is His (which is everything!). He has given you more than you deserve (we deserve nothing). He loved and walked next to you when you yelled, rebelled, and fled His presence. He has cared for you when you were wounded, physically, emotionally, and spiritually, all through the love of Jesus Christ.
We all are adopted. I pray you will know your Father, your friend, and our brother Jesus as the one who presents us to our Father as His known children.
